Melody and Memory in Autism

gestalt get together

Enhancing Language Through Music: Exploring Gestalt Language Processing and Melodies - A presentation by Corinne Zmoos, MS, CCC SLP, as part of the Gestalt Get-Together webinar series and podcast.

Earn 0.15 ASHA CEU for this episode with Speech Therapy PD: https://www.speechtherapypd.com/course?name=Melody-and-Memory-in-Autism

Join Corinne Zmoos for a deep dive into Gestalt language processing (GLP) and its intersection with music and psychoacoustics. In this episode, Corinne discusses the importance of musical language for autistic children, memory processing, and techniques to integrate melody into speech therapy sessions. Highlights include insights into research on musical memory, pitch discrimination, and practical melodic techniques like piggybacking, staircase melodies, and mountain melodies for effective language acquisition. Tune in to explore the evidence and enhance your practice with these musical methods!

00:00 Introduction to the Gestalt Get-Together

02:52 Understanding Gestalt Language Processing

04:50 Stage One of Gestalt Language Processing

07:34 Situational Gestalts and Memory Encoding

14:18 Linguistic Gestalts and Stage One Characteristics

17:33 Stages of Language Acquisition and Marge Blanc's Contributions

23:13 Working Memory and Autism

36:42 Musical Memory and Its Importance

43:20 Exploring Melody and Its Components

49:19 Pitch Discrimination and Memory Tasks

51:07 Findings on Autistic Children's Musical Abilities

52:17 Pamela Heaton's Research on Pitch Memory

54:09 Implications for Therapy Sessions

55:54 Enhanced Memory for Vocal Melodies

01:00:12 Melodic Techniques for Therapy

01:03:02 Piggybacking: A Songwriting Technique

01:12:41 Stepwise and Mountain Melodies

01:20:15 Conclusion and Q&A

About: Corinne Zmoos, M.S. CCC-SLP, is a musical speech-language pathologist in Baltimore, Maryland. Her private practice, Messy Happy Music Lab, specializes in neurodivergent language acquisition, musical language therapy, Gestalt Processing, and AAC. As a neurodivergent individual, Corinne deeply understands how music lights up the brains of nontraditional learners and facilitates progress rooted in joy rather than compliance. Corinne presents nationally and internationally her framework for music theory as a critical element and intervention consideration in Gestalt Language Processing. Corinne’s current areas of qualitative inquiry are auditory-motor rhythmic cueing, musical syntax as a vehicle for linguistic syntax, and timbre-experience matching.