GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY AS APPLIED TO LANGUAGE DISTURBANCES

Abstract

Clinical observation shows that it is possible to predict future dyslexias in a fairly large percentage of 3, 4 and 5-year olds who are originally referred on account of motor-speech delay, developmental work-deafness and severe dyslalia. We have examined the motor, perceptual and emotional performance of our children and have found a number of basic and specific dysfunctions which seem to underlie a variety of language disturbances. A number of tests show that these youngsters often do relatively poorly in abstract performance in spite of good intelligence. They frequently have difficulty in finer muscular control; some of them show a degree of dyspraxia. Many are late in establishing cerebral dominance and have trouble with right-left progression. Bender Gestalt tests show striking immaturity of visuo-motor functioning. Body image is usually very primitive. These children show disturbances in figure-background relationships, they are often hyperactive and have difficulty with patterning of motor and behavioral responses. They have, in fact, trouble at every level of integration. According to Gestalt psychology the ability to experience and to respond in terms of Gestalten is a fundamental principle of psychophysiological functioning. It is our hypothesis that deficiencies in this area are responsible not only for our children''s inferior performance on certain non-verbal tasks, but that they are also at the root of a number of language deviations. We feel that the crucial factor in central language imbalance is difficulty with structuralization and organization of perceptual and motor configurations. Differentiation between foreground and background is often faulty. These children have trouble recognizing and reproducing the dimensional and organizational details which make for the structural coherence of the Gestalt. Our clinical observations point to maturational delay as a significant factor in language disorders. These theoretical considerations bring up certain practical problems for speech therapy which are discussed in the paper.