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23 %u00a9 Elklan Training Limited 2025Elklan Supporting Gestalt Language Processing %u2013 a Total Communication Approach4.7 VOCAL GESTALTSNon-speaking children and young people may communicate by using vocalisations. A vocalisation is a sound that is not recognised as being a unit within a language%u2019s sound system so a vocalisation cannot be combined with other vocalisations to form a word.Vocalisations can convey a mood or need so it is important to identify the distinction between these vocalisations. For example, for one child a high pitch repetitive vocalisation may appear to indicate distress but another, it might be signaling that they are happy or excited.Vocalisations or repetitive sounds may convey meaning. For example, a child or young person might make clicking, grunting or high-pitched sounds and one should ask %u2018Are they experimenting with the sounds or what are they communicating?%u2019 If the vocalisation is associated with meaning, then is it likely to be a vocal gestalt? Vocal gestalts are more apparent when the vocalisations are those which are copied directly from the sounds heard from the source. An example of this is the child who uses the exact vocalisation noises or hums the music from a nursery rhyme in a favourite video clip. This may be with or without the physical movement shown on the video.