Expressive Communication Strengths of Adults With Severe to Profound Intellectual Disabilities as Reported by Group Home Staff

Abstract

This study documents the communication strengths of 14 adults who resided in community group-home settings through the use of staff informant reports. These participants had as many as 12 different communication forms (e.g., reaching gestures, body orientation, facial expression, leading gestures, eye gaze, vocalizations) and 11 different communication functions (e.g., conveying emotional state, making a choice when one was presented, requesting desired objects and people, conveying protest). The author compares his results to an earlier report (McLean, Brady, McLean, & Behrens, 1999) to demonstrate that caregiver report was as clinically useful as structured sampling in identifying the communication repertoires of these individuals. The author also discusses clinical implications with regard to the role of the speech— language pathologist and communication assessment in the adult community group-home setting.