Families can help choose FCT communication response options by sharing how the person already communicates, which partners understand each form, and what works during real routines. The qualified clinician should connect the message to assessment evidence and review effort, speed, reliability, motor and language access, AAC, client preference, health, and partner follow-through. The person needs an accessible way to accept, decline, pause, or change the choice.
How to choose FCT communication response
List possible speech, AAC, sign, gesture, writing, movement, or device responses. For each, record the client's current use and preference, outcome requested, effort, speed, recognizability, support needed, likely partners, settings, and backup form. Choose a testable starting response without declaring other valid communication inferior.
Interpret the plan in context
The easiest response in a teaching room may fail in a noisy store or with an unfamiliar partner. A new response can also be slower than the behavior it is intended to replace. Selection should remain provisional until opportunity-level data and direct client experience show that it works in the relevant context.
Use current clinical and research sources
The Tiger, Hanley, and Bruzek review discusses assessment, response selection, teaching, and schedule changes. A later practitioner guide organizes selection around effectiveness, effort, recognition, and persistence. The Ethics Code keeps client involvement and evaluation active. These sources do not prove one form fits every person.
Preserve communication and participation
The ASHA AAC portal supports continuous access to communication tools. For this decision, preserve established communication, ordinary supports, direct client input, consent, assent when applicable, and a usable way to decline, pause, or correct.
A practical example
Evan can say break, tap a break icon, or hand over a card. Across nine practice opportunities, the icon is independent in six, speech in two, and the card in one. Evan chooses the icon for work and speech during games, so the plan preserves both forms.
Questions families can use
What outcome should the message access? Which forms does the person choose? How much effort and prompting do they require? Who recognizes them? What backup works if a device or partner is unavailable?
Sources
- Council of Autism Service Providers, ABA Practice Guidelines Version 3.0 public summary
- Behavior Analyst Certification Board, Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts
- Behavior Analyst Certification Board, BCBA Test Content Outline, 6th edition
- Tiger, Hanley, and Bruzek, Functional Communication Training: A Review and Practical Guide
- Kunnavatana and colleagues, Selecting an Appropriate Functional Communication Response
- Hagopian, Boelter, and Jarmolowicz, Reinforcement Schedule Thinning Following Functional Communication Training
- Gerow and colleagues, Systematic Review of Functional Communication Training Effectiveness
- American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Augmentative and Alternative Communication
Finni resources
