To gather a multilingual communication history for ABA planning, document the person's languages, dialects, communication modes, exposure, proficiency, partners, topics, settings, education, changes, and preferences through accessible direct input and source-labeled examples. Record interpreter use and access. Multilingualism, accent, dialect, and code-switching are ordinary variation. Qualified multilingual professionals should lead conclusions about language difference, disorder, and valid testing.

Map languages, dialects, and modes

Record every spoken or signed language, dialect, AAC system, writing form, gesture set, and other reliable mode Rafael uses or understands. Include preferred names for each and avoid replacing community language with a generic label.

Describe exposure over time

Document age and context of exposure, duration, frequency, education, literacy, interruption, migration, access, and recent change. Current performance reflects opportunity and use history as well as skill.

Map partners, topics, and settings

Ask which language or mode Rafael uses with family members, peers, teachers, clinicians, community members, media, and private thought, and for which topics or activities. Different distributions can be functional rather than deficient.

Preserve direct and proxy sources

Record Rafael's report separately from family, school, clinical, and record sources. Note timeframe and observation access. Differences can reveal context or recall limits and should remain visible.

Plan qualified language support

Verify interpreter or bilingual-professional qualifications, role, dialect fit, preparation, confidentiality, and communication channel. Record whether interpretation was consecutive, simultaneous, direct, or unavailable and how that affects evidence.

Use history to choose valid methods

Select languages, modes, partners, samples, tools, and referrals around Rafael's profile. Avoid standard scores when the required normative and administration conditions are absent. Label descriptive observations by the language and method used.

Protect Rafael's communication access

For Rafael, preserve AAC and every reliable communication mode, language and interpreter access, privacy, ordinary supports, adequate wait time, food, water, bathroom, mobility, prescribed care, pain response, rest, relationships, and emergency help. Verify health, hearing, vision, motor, and safety questions through qualified roles. Use applicable consent and assent processes and honor refusal or withdrawal during nonemergency participation.

Build Rafael's communication-evidence ladder

Begin with Rafael's direct accessible report, priorities, modes, languages, partners, and ordinary routines. Add source-labeled interviews, records, natural samples, structured probes, speech-language or AAC assessment, hearing or medical evidence, and behavior-analytic observation only as needed. Keep message, language, speech, AAC access, partner response, behavioral function, diagnosis, decision, and outcome separate.

Explain the assessment to Rafael

Use Rafael's preferred language and mode to explain the question, lead role, contributors, activities, tools, interpreter, recording, privacy, access, supports, prompts, risks, stop route, possible decisions, and uncertainty. Invite questions, correction, refusal, pause, and withdrawal. Assessment participation never requires speech, eye contact, one motor response, or surrender of AAC.

Build Rafael's multilingual communication history

Create one versioned multilingual communication history for the family and school planning review. Include client priority, question, lead, contributors, qualifications, source, languages, modes, AAC, interpreter, partner, setting, opportunity, message, response window, partner response, access, health, consent and assent when applicable, supports, prompts, methods, tools, integrity, raw data, invalidity, missingness, uncertainty, decision, referral, revision, and review trigger.

Work through Rafael's example

Rafael's history uses 18 predeclared fields across Spanish, English, and AAC. Fifteen have direct or source-labeled evidence; three remain unclear because school exposure dates and interpreter conditions are missing. Report 15/18 completeness and the three open fields. Do not fill them by guessing from current fluency. Rafael chooses Spanish for family routines and mixed Spanish-English plus AAC for school planning. Preserve planned and valid units, raw counts, denominators, languages, modes, source labels, partner actions, access states, refusals, invalidity, corrections, versions, decisions, and open work. This fictional example demonstrates one communication-assessment control. It supplies no universal language level, diagnosis, behavioral function, legal conclusion, treatment effect, or outcome guarantee.

Use Rafael's evidence for a bounded decision

Identify the exact decision and qualified owner before expanding assessment. For Rafael, document direct and conflicting evidence, client priority, language and mode, AAC, access, health, partner, context, alternatives, burden, further evidence, chosen action, accessible explanation, disagreement route, and review trigger. Choose the least burdensome adequate path and stop collection that cannot change action.

Review Rafael's data without causal shortcuts

For Rafael, show raw messages or responses and denominators, representative opportunities, direct and proxy sources, languages, modes, AAC, partners, supports, prompts, access, health context, invalidity, missingness, and uncertainty. Observed communication describes sampled conditions. It never proves diagnosis, behavioral function, internal intent beyond the person's communication, or universal performance.

Address Rafael's main assessment risk

An English-only history could make Rafael's stronger Spanish skills invisible. Calling code-switching inconsistent would replace linguistic context with a deficit label. The history preserves language, mode, partner, topic, and exposure together. Review definitions, client meaning, language, mode, AAC, interpreter, partner behavior, access, health, method fit, tool rules, sampling, causal scope, and authority separately. A test score cannot repair invalid language conditions or inaccessible administration. Technical labels never override Rafael's current communication.

Choose Rafael's next assessment action

Rafael reviews the language-and-mode map, corrects one school assumption, and selects a qualified interpreter for the next meeting. Record qualified owners, current supports, method and tool versions, evidence or referral tasks, due dates, validation, client communication, uncertainty, decision, and next review. Preserve original observations when the account changes. A later assessment adds an auditable version instead of rewriting what Rafael communicated under earlier conditions.

Apply current speech-language and AAC sources to Rafael

The ASHA Autism portal describes comprehensive speech-language assessment for autistic people across speech, language, feeding and swallowing, and AAC as relevant. The ASHA Spoken Language Disorders portal describes comprehensive, culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment and consideration of language difference and disorder. For Rafael, qualified SLP, AAC, hearing, medical, motor, educational, and other professionals lead conclusions within their current authority and competence.

Protect multilingual validity for Rafael

The ASHA Multilingual Service Delivery portal discusses case history, samples, observation, dynamic assessment, interpreters, and collaboration. It advises against reporting standardized scores when the person is outside the normative sample and against deriving a standard score from translated items unless that version is validated and used as directed. For Rafael, record the language, mode, examiner, interpreter, method, and validity limit of every result.

Keep AAC available for Rafael

ASHA's AAC portal states that AAC users should always have access to their tools or devices. Breaux and Smith offer assent-focused guidance in an evolving evidence base. Preserve Rafael's AAC, reliable modes, privacy, ordinary supports, and accessible ways to consent when required, assent when applicable, decline, pause, stop, correct an interpretation, and change a communication preference.

Keep education and ABA sources in scope for Rafael

For Rafael's school-specific question involving a child evaluated under IDEA Part B, 34 CFR 300.304(c)(1)(ii) requires assessment in the child's native language or other communication mode and in the form most likely to yield accurate information unless clearly infeasible. This education rule is setting-specific. The BCBA outline is examination content. The BACB Ethics Code governs covered people and gives BACB no separate organizational jurisdiction. The CASP public summary supplies high-level ABA treatment scope for autistic people.

Close Rafael's communication review

Review the multilingual communication history with Rafael, the SLP or other clinical lead, the behavior analyst when involved, access and operational owners, and the specialists named in the manifest. Verify that languages and modes remain represented, AAC stays available, methods and conclusions remain within scope, partner and system conditions remain visible, and uncertainty is clear. Keep this page draft and noindex until every required review is complete.

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