One of the tenets put forth by the National Joint Committee for the Communication Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities (NJC) is that all people communicate (ASHA Suppl 23:73–81, 2003). This is a powerful statement that shapes assessment and intervention practices for individuals communicating at the prelinguistic communication level. It is powerful because it puts the onus on practitioners to learn how each individual communicates. This premise can shift attention away from documenting one’s communication limitations and toward describing extant communication behaviors. These extant behaviors often include idiosyncratic and socially undesirable behaviors that serve communication functions. The focus of this chapter is on discussing strategies that have been developed and implemented to describe communication in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) who communicate primarily with prelinguistic forms, including gestures, vocalizations, and idiosyncratic forms of communication.

Three complementary assessment strategies will be discussed. The first strategy is informant report—an invaluable strategy that capitalizes on learning about how an individual communicates from those who interact with the individual on a regular basis and therefore know her or him best. The second strategy is direct observation of the learner in naturally occurring contexts in order to confirm and supplement information gained through informant report. The third strategy presented will be structured observation designed to probe a variety of communication responses. This third strategy could include functional analysis of communication behaviors; however, this strategy is discussed more completely in Chap. 7 in this volume. Therefore we will not repeat information on functional analysis here. Following discussion of all three strategies, examples of how using each strategy led to development of a profile of communication strengths and needs for two children with autism will be presented.