What is Functional Communication in Childhood?

Functional communication in childhood is the ability to clearly express one’s wants and needs. When children can communicate in this way, they demonstrate an understanding that others can’t read their minds, empowering them to seek help and meet their needs effectively.

Recognizing Challenges in Functional Communication

Difficulties with functional communication can manifest in various ways:

• Struggling with self-advocacy: Having trouble asking for assistance.
• Physical discomfort instead of verbalizing needs: For example, fidgeting or having an accident rather than asking for a bathroom break.
• Tantrums: Expressing unmet desires through crying and physical outbursts instead of verbal requests.
• Yelling: Shouting single words instead of using complete phrases to communicate.
• Challenging behaviors: When children are unsure how to communicate their wants and needs, they may exhibit distress through fits, hiding, running away, or aggression. These behaviors are often a child’s attempt to convey something they lack the words for.

Functional communication is practical and serves a vital purpose in daily life. It’s a foundational skill for later developmental milestones such as emotional regulation, coping mechanisms, and various aspects of daily living. Challenges can appear early, like a two-year-old having a tantrum instead of asking for a desired item. Teaching children to communicate their needs is crucial for developing strong parent-child communication.

Understanding the Roots of Functional Communication Issues

Functional communication involves conveying information that serves a purpose for the individual and is appropriate for the situation. In a classroom setting, examples of effective functional communication include:

• “I didn’t understand the directions.”
• “I haven’t finished my work yet.”
• Approaching a teacher privately to say, “I need a bathroom break.”
• Asking to visit the nurse and stating, “I’m feeling sick.”

These examples demonstrate asking for help or understanding. If your child rarely asks for help or assumes others should know what they are thinking or feeling, functional communication may be an area of concern.

Strategies for Supporting Functional Communication

Children facing functional communication challenges may have strong rote language skills, such as naming items, speaking clearly, or possessing an extensive vocabulary. However, these rote skills don’t always translate to practical communication.

Here are helpful approaches:

• Create opportunities for social language practice: Supervised activities like art classes, scouting, or gymnastics offer excellent environments to practice social communication. Inform facilitators about your child’s struggles and request they gently prompt your child to ask for help when needed (e.g., for water or a bathroom break).
• Prompt requests at home:
• Wait for your child to initiate requests: If your child whines or points to something out of reach, provide them with the words. For instance, “Say, ‘I want a cookie,'” or “Please help.” Immediately provide the item if they attempt the request.
• Gradually increase expectations: As your child improves, reduce your prompting. Start with “I want…” requiring them to add “truck” or “cookie.” Then, move to “Tell me what you need.” Finally, wait expectantly for them to ask nicely.
• Understand behavior as communication: Many challenging behaviors stem from functional communication issues. Before addressing the behavior, try to understand what your child is trying to communicate. Then, teach them a more appropriate way to get their needs met.
• Avoid rewarding negative behavior: If your child is throwing a tantrum for a toy, do not give it to them. Calmly wait for them to ask nicely or stop yelling. Then, you can comfort them or provide the item. This teaches them that calm requests are the most effective way to get their needs met.
• Teach emotion vocabulary: Use “feeling cards” with faces depicting emotions like sad, happy, mad, and worried. Encourage your child and siblings to make these faces for the camera to make the cards familiar. Allow your child to use these cards to express how they are feeling.
• Allow for downtime: At the end of a long day, provide your child with quiet time to regroup before engaging in demanding conversations.
• Help them share experiences: To encourage sharing about their day, use specific questions and prompts. For example, with a class picture on the fridge, use prompts like, “Today, I played with…” or “I had lunch sitting beside…” This “scripting” provides a framework for social exchanges.

When to Seek Professional Support

If your child continues to experience significant difficulties with functional communication, consider professional intervention.

• Speech and Language Therapy (Speech-Language Pathologist): Look for therapy focused on pragmatic communication (social language).
• Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Therapy: This in-home therapy uses behavioral strategies to enhance pragmatic and functional communication. ABA treatment plans are designed to address social and conversation skills. While often covered by insurance for individuals with an Autism neurotype, it can be beneficial for other diagnoses as well.
• Functional Analysis: A Behavior Analyst can conduct a functional analysis to understand the underlying causes of your child’s challenging behaviors or communication difficulties. This helps in teaching replacement behaviors that serve the same need. For example, instead of grunting and jumping for a toy, a child can be taught to point, say “please,” or “Can you please hand me that toy?”
• Psychologist or Neuropsychologist: For a comprehensive assessment to explore potential mental health or behavioral factors.
• Psychotherapist or Play Therapist: To address emotional symptoms, often through social skills groups or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) interventions.

Connections to Functional Communication

Functional communication is interconnected with other developmental areas:

• Social Skills: Socializing is an adaptive skill reliant on functional communication.
• Communication Skills: Functional communication is a fundamental building block for more advanced communication and reciprocal engagement with peers.
• Intelligence: General intelligence plays a role in functional communication, and global developmental differences can impact communication.
• Motor Challenges: Motor impairments can impact adaptive skills, especially in younger children, and may coincide with functional communication difficulties.
• Inattention: Attention is a foundational skill that influences functional communication and can affect receptive and expressive language.

Resources for Further Learning

• Kroncke, Willard, & Huckabee (2016). Assessment of autism spectrum: Critical issues in clinical forensic and school settings. Springer, San Francisco.
• Bell, Nanci (2005). Talkies visualizing and verbalizing for language comprehension and expression.
• Bernstein, Deena K. & Tiegermann-Farber, Ellenmorris (2017). Language and Communication in Children, Third through Sixth Editions.
• Baker, Jed. (Retrieved 2017). Preparing for Life.
• Mendler, Allen (2013). Teaching your students how to have a conversation.
• Newman, Barbara M. & Newman, Phillip R. (2014). Development through life: A psychosocial approach.