Parent priorities in communication intervention for young students with severe disabilities

Parents of young students with disabilities were interviewed about their priorities for communication skill intervention for their child. Twenty communication skills in the areas of requesting, refusing, getting attention and socializing were discussed. Parents rated the importance of each skill, ranked skills in order of importance for their child and gave reasons for their ratings and rankings. The skills most important to parents were those of asking for objects, objecting to the actions of others, maintaining an interaction and drawing attention to pain or discomfort. Common themes were parent and child frustration, safety concerns, social acceptability, concern for the child's autonomy, parent perception of skill difficulty, acceptance of current skills, and desire to develop communication for learning.