Assess the pivotal preverbal communication skills children need to develop functional communication. The Early Functional Communication Profile is sensitive to small, subtle changes in joint attention, social interaction, and communicative intent.
Test Purpose:
The targeted skills are hallmarks of atypical development in the preverbal child. The profile measures subtle, functional changes in nonverbal communication skills in children with severe disabilities along with larger gains in children with moderate disabilities. Use it to gather information that will help determine a starting point in therapy and show progress over time.
The Early Functional Communication Profile is appropriate to use with children who have:
- suspected or diagnosed Autism Spectrum Disorder
- severe to profound cognitive impairments
- coexisting disorders
- augmentative and alternative communication
The Early Functional Communication Profile is a criterion-referenced tool. As such, it does not supply age or number scores. The test's precise descriptive measures tell you what the child CAN do and how she responds to different types of prompts.
The assessment is dynamic—a hierarchy of prompts provides information about what skills the child performs with some degree of adult assistance. Skills and the level of progress are delineated by:
- developmental level—skills are arranged from easiest to hardest
- level of environmental prompt—can be where the tester or test items are positioned (e.g., in front, to the side, or in back of the child); a gestural prompt (e.g., handing an object to the child, pointing); or verbal cues (e.g., saying "your turn," asking a question)
- level of adult-action prompt—subtle physical and visual prompts such as hand-over-hand, patting the chest or arm, waiting with hand reaching out, waiting expectantly, etc.
Subtests
- Joint Attention—Requesting Objects
- Social Interaction—Turn-taking
- Communicative Intent—Requesting Continuation of Actions
- Communicative Intent—Requesting Assistance
- Social Interaction—Response to Greetings
- Joint Attention—Receptive Language
- Communicative Intent—Protesting
Test Procedures
- The goal of testing is to find the child's highest level of response with the least amount of prompting.
- Administer the subtests in any order, as long as you address each applicable communication area.
- The test form is organized into columns. Each column represents a different level of skill. Skills increase in difficulty as you move left to right across the pages.
- Each subskill/column is further divided into a hierarchy of environmental and adult action prompts (listed on the test form). The prompting level decreases as you move down the column (the tasks are performed with more independence).
- Suggested starting levels are indicated on the test form or you can choose a different one if you think it is closer to the child's level.
- If the child performs the desired skill, increase the difficulty by moving down the column (decreasing prompt level).
- If the child does not perform the desired skill, increase the prompting level (by moving up the column) or move a column to the left (easier skill level).
- Use high interest objects of your choosing for testing. Low interest or nondesirable items are used to assess skill in protesting. Suggestions for choosing materials are provided in the manual.
- Provide ample opportunity to elicit skills.
- A detailed explanation of each test item and each prompting level is in the examiner's manual.
- Treatment goals and caregiver goals are listed for each skill area.
Test Scoring
- Document mastered and emerging skills
- A skill is considered mastered if the child consistently performs it three times at one difficulty level
- A skill is considered emerging if the child inconsistently performs it one or two times
- Highlight the level of performance and prompts boxes in the seven communication areas in color on the test form to give a quick visual representation of performance
- The seven subtests are independent of each other so less highlighting on one communication area may not necessarily mean the child is lower on all communication areas
- Credit is given for approximations and for various modes of communication
- Items of less difficulty than the one mastered are considered mastered
- Caregiver questionnaire is accepted when the child does not engage in testing
- After highlighting level of performance and prompts in the seven communication areas, fill out the Summary Chart on the test form for a visual representation of mastered and emerging communication skills
Statistics
This test is criterion referenced, not a norm-referenced instrument. Criterion-referenced tests compare the subject's mastery of the specified behaviors to the specified behaviors. Such tests are designed to provide information for instruction, not to compare students with each other.
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