Marge has been a Speech-Language Pathologist for 50 years, and reports that she has loved every minute of it! After working in public schools in the US and Canada for 20 years, Marge met her first autistic client in 1993 when she was a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She applied the principles of gestalt language development she had learned from the research of Barry Prizant, Ann Peters, and colleagues — and they worked immediately! Her first article detailing the three year journey of her first gestalt language processor was published as “Finding the Words: to Tell the Whole Story” in 2005 in a parent-accessible journal. It was there that the term Natural Language Acquisition was born, chosen to reflect the naturalness of gestalt language development.

Marge then conducted clinical research as part of her team’s service-delivery at the Communication Development Center in Madison, WI which she co-founded in 1997. Her longitudinal research described gestalt language development in a wide variety of children, primarily autistic children, detailing the findings of Prizant, Peters, and colleagues. Her elaboration and quantification of gestalt language development were published in her book dedicated to parents and clinicians, Natural Language Acquisition on the Autism Spectrum: the Journey from Echolalia to Self-Generated Language in 2012. NLA was first presented to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in 2014, in an address co-authored by Barry Prizant.

Since that time, Marge has been actively sharing NLA via the CDC website, communicationdevelopmentcenter.com, consulting with health and education entities, and presenting courses and webinars throughout the world. She co-authored the open access article “Using the Natural Language Acquisition Protocol to Support Gestalt Language Development” (Blanc, Blackwell, & Elias, 2023), published in ASHA Perspectives, co-admins several study groups, co-conducts a parent group, and meets weekly with SLPs/SLTs in various countries to translate international materials and to support colleagues’ courses, articles, and research internationally. Her current special interest is documenting “dual processors” and supporting qualitative research endeavors. 

Liz Lowton has been working as a Speech and Language Therapist in the NHS since 1996.  She was a Sure Start SLT in the early 2000s and has been working in the same communities in Central London Community NHS Trust since then.  Liz came across Natural Language Acquisition during Covid and contacted Marge Blanc to find out more.  She completed the Northern Speech training and later the Meaningful Speech Training and introduced it into the Early Years SLT service in 2021.  Liz is passionate about supporting all children to achieve their potential, and for all families to have access to the right support at the right time.  She is involved in health inequalities projects within the Trust and always looking at providing the best service for children and families with the resources available. 

Evi Typadi is originally from Greece. She came to London to study for a Masters in Linguistics and in Speech and Language Therapy and qualified as a speech and language therapist in 1997. Evi joined Central London Community NHS Trust in 2001 working on the Education Action Zone and the ‘Every Child a Talker’ project supporting Early Years Settings in Westminster.  Evi and Liz completed their Natural Language Acquisition journey together and completed the Northern Speech and Meaningful Speech training at the same time.  Evi is passionate about trying new ways of working and making sure that children achieve in all their environments.  Evi’s knowledge of linguistics, has supported the service in developing their skills, and she has been at the forefront of providing training to the service, and the wider community.  Being Bilingual has given Evi another perspective to Natural Language Acquisition, which has supported the children and families who she supports, many of whom have English as an Additional Language. 

Kate is a white, LGBTQ+ autistic, ADHD dual-qualified Speech and Language Therapist and Sensory Integration Practitioner working in both an employed and independent

capacity. Kate is leaning into her neurodivergence building a 'portfolio career', working as a Clinical Locality Lead in an employed capacity for Outcomes First Group, where she oversees a large team of therapists and assistants, including SLT's, OT's, and Psychologists supporting children and young people in specialist schools and children's homes from

Hampshire down to Cornwall. Alongside this, she also does some independent

practice, predominantly offering training, consultation and supervisions to other

therapists and care and education teams.

Kate is involved in various voluntary projects, including:

• Co-chairing:

o the UK SLT Pride Network,

o a Community of Practice for SLT's working in Relationships and Sex

Education,

o the Neurodiversity Affirming Clinical Excellence Network,

• Co-leading the RCSLT and UK SLT Pride LGBTQIA+ working group, and within

this having co-authored the guidance recently published to aid the profession's development in this matter and presenting at last years RCSLT Conference, in their EDI keynote speeches,

• Being a white SLT who has embarked on their own active anti-racism learning, part of which is co-facilitating, alongside OT, Carly Budd a 'white women anti-racism book club' which has a mix of OT and SLT in it, including several independent practitioners registered with RCSLT and ASLTIP.

• Being 'master trainer' of the upcoming Active Anti-Racism Training (which originated through the RCSLT anti-racism working group).

Kate is currently co-authoring a neurodiversity affirming and intersectionality

affirming relationships and sex education resource for Speechmark following

recognition in the 2021 Sex Education Forum Awards, for her work in using SLT to

build the mental capacity of neurodivergent learners assessed as lacking capacity

to consent to sex.

Kate has always been a keen learner and invested in her own personal growth. However, it is only in the last 3-4 years that opportunities (some of which are highlighted above) have introduced her to the ongoing work she has to focus energy on in relation to unconscious bias, active anti-racism and intersectionality-affirming behaviour and practice. She is passionate about supporting other people with their journeys and in forming communities of support and accountability.

Kate lives in Devon, with her wife & their two dogs.

Kelsie Olds, "The Occuplaytional Therapist", shares passionately every day online with thousands of parents, teachers, professionals--and adults simply seeking to heal childhood wounds in their own selves--about the healing and power in play as the core meaningful occupation that underlies childhood. Kelsie has most recently worked as an occupational therapist on an Air Force Base in England which gave them a unique perspective on both the US and UK systems of healthcare and education that intersect and affect the children they work with every day. Currently, Kelsie is working full-time in online advocacy, traveling, consulting, and lecturing.

Julie Holmes is a Neurodiversity Affirming Speech and Language Therapist. Julie has completed the masters programme in Speech and Language Therapy at Newcastle 13 years ago. Prior to this she qualified as a Social Worker which continues to influence her work in the area of disability. This means she leans towards the social model of disability and away from the medical model! 

Julie has a longstanding passion for Gestalt Language Processing. She promotes strengths based approaches and believes fully in the therapeutic nature of relationships. Julie strongly believes that everyone has a right to communication. She believes everyone should have access to supports so they can communicate to their fullest potential to communicate what they want, to who they want, how they want and when they want to say it. 

Julie works privately as a consultant for organisations, as a trainer, provides autism assessments within multidisciplinary teams and she provides speech and language Therapy and supports. If you want to find out more about the work she does follow @beme_therapy as she has a few exciting projects in the works.

Julie is passionate about supporting her colleagues to do things ‘differently’ and embrace gestalt language processing in their work. She hopes to talk about this and her own experiences of neurodiversity at the conference. 

David Cahn (ADHD) is one half of Free to Learn Childminding in Leeds, West Yorkshire. He has worked in early years in various settings since 2007. Free to Learn Childminding is all about relationships, self-directed outdoor play and striving towards neurodiversity-affirming practice. We have a small but growing library of YouTube videos on various topics related to early years education.