Episode #199: Language Processing and Pseudoscience with Kathleen Oppenheimer

Joining me today is the SLP behind the Instagram account @language_processing, Kathleen Oppenheimer. She caught my attention because she consistently shares excellent information on her page about language processing and the research behind it.

Gestalt Language Processing (GLP) is a hot topic these days. Kathleen defines GLP as a hypothesis about how language is acquired, in contrast to Analytic Language Processing (ALP). It’s important to note that these terms are not commonly used outside this specific context, nor are they frequently found in research articles. For many in the autism community, GLP currently serves as an identity label for their echolalia, but it’s crucial to distinguish this from its use as a clinical label to guide therapy.

We also discuss the abundance of ongoing research and debates in the field. If you’re not aware of what’s available, you might not know what to trust. Kathleen emphasizes that pseudoscience can appear scientific but is not applied in a scientifically rigorous manner (e.g., ignoring parts of research, relying solely on anecdotal evidence, not being evidence-based, etc.). When navigating the internet, you may come across ASHA journals, clinical research, peer-reviewed articles, white papers, anecdotal articles, and viewpoint articles—it’s essential to understand the publication requirements for each before applying them to your practice.

As a final thought, Kathleen reminds social media consumers: You don’t know what you don’t know, especially when it comes to research and research methods. Be sure to check out her page for more insights on language processing!

#autism #speechtherapy

Today’s Guest:

Kathleen Oppenheimer, M.S., CCC-SLP, has been a speech-language pathologist for 10 years. She received her AB in Linguistics and Chinese from Harvard College and her MS in Speech-Language Pathology from Northwestern University. She is currently on a leave of absence from her PhD program at the University of Maryland, where she studies sentence processing in children with typical language and those with Developmental Language Disorder. She is interested science communication and in helping SLP students and practitioners to understand the scientific foundations of our field to support science-based clinical decision-making. This interest led her to create the Instagram account @language_processing to share information about language science research as it relates to clinical practice.

What’s Inside:

• What is Gestalt Language Processing and Analytic Language Processing?
• What is pseudoscience?
• What kind of research is out there, and what should you trust?

Mentioned In This Episode

• Kathleen Oppenheimer – Google Scholar
• What’s Language Processing (@language_processing) on Instagram
• @TheLanguageScientists
• Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership 
• Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram

Rate, Review & Subscribe

If you found this podcast helpful, please consider rating and reviewing my show!  This helps me to support more people — just like you!
If you have not done so already, subscribe to the podcast. This ensures that you do not miss an episode!

Listen on
Apple Podcasts

Listen on
Stitcher

Subscribe
via Email