By Amanda Weil, SLP Trainee
Historically speaking, scripting in the field of speech-language pathology was seen as a negative. It was considered to contain meaningless repetitions that did not serve any communicative function. Moreover, scripting was viewed as something that should be eliminated in Autistic individuals during speech therapy sessions.
For those who are unfamiliar, scripting is a type of utterance that is a form of echolalia. This means that language is repeated from others after a brief or extended time. For example, delayed echolalia might look like an individual repeating a line from their favorite TV show.
Current research shows growing evidence for the various communicative functions that echolalia/scripting provides. For example, scripts can be used to facilitate turn-taking, labeling, requesting, affirming, and protesting. Moreover, scripts play an important role in gestalt language acquisition (Prizant, 1982, 1983; Prizant & Duchan, 1981; Prizant & Rydell, 1984; Stiegler, 2015)
Gestalt language acquisition is learning language from a “top-down” approach. This approach is common in Autistic individuals. The stages of gestalt language acquisition involve learning language in chunks versus the “bottom up” approach to language acquisition often seen in neurotypical individuals. Scripts are a valuable stage in language development for those who learn from a “top-down” approach, and they are a valuable tool for communication.
Two cartoons explaining differences in analytic vs. gestalt language development through interactions between parent and child.
References
Prizant, B. M. (1982). Gestalt language and gestalt processing in autism. Topics in Language Disorders, 3(1), 16–23.
Prizant, B. M. (1983). Language acquisition and communicative behavior in autism: Toward an understanding of the “whole” of it. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 48(3), 296–307. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshd.4803.296
Prizant, B. M., & Rydell, P. J. (1984). Analysis of functions of delayed echolalia in autistic children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 27(2), 183–192. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.2702.183
Stiegler, L. N. (2015). Examining the echolalia literature: Where do speech-language pathologists stand? American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 24(4), 750–762. https://doi.org/10.1044/2015_AJSLP-14-0166
Yoshimura, J. (2022) Analytic and Gestalt Language Processing [Digital Image]. The Informed SLP. https://www.theinformedslp.com/review/let-s-give-them-something-to-gestalt-about
