Functional Communication and How Speech Therapy Can Help
Functional communication means being able to ask for help, say you're hungry, or let someone know you need a break. These daily moments rely on expressing needs, feelings, and choices in ways others understand.
For many people with an acquired language disorder or developmental language delay, these skills may not come naturally and need to be taught or re-learned.
Key Takeaways:
Functional Communication: Using words, gestures, or tools to express basic needs, feelings, and choices.
Communication Challenges: Individuals with developmental language disorders such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, or childhood apraxia of speech, and those with acquired conditions including stroke, traumatic brain injury (TBI), Parkinson's disease (PD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often experience difficulty with functional communication.
Role of Speech Therapy: Speech-language pathologists assess, create plans, and teach practical communication tools.
Benefits: Improves independence, relationships, and quality of life for individuals and families.
What Is Functional Communication?
Tools and Techniques to Address Functional Communication Goals
How Speech Therapy Helps Build Effective Communication
Teaching Communication in Real Life
Challenging Behaviors and Functional Communication Support
What Is Functional Communication?
Functional communication uses words, gestures, signs, or devices to express everyday needs and emotions. A person might say "no," point to a picture of food, or use a gesture to indicate that they’re tired. These actions help people participate in daily life.
It differs from academic or formal communication. The focus is on real-life interactions, such as asking for help, showing discomfort, or greeting someone.
Individuals with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, childhood apraxia of speech, brain injuries, Parkinson's disease, ALS, stroke, or other acquired or developmental delays often need support in learning or regaining these skills.
These are some examples of individuals who may have severe language impairments, but the impairment doesn’t need to be severe for us to support functional communication needs. Teaching functional communication skills enables individuals to deal with everyday situations effectively.
The goal is to help each person express themselves in the way that works best for them.
Tools and Techniques to Address Functional Communication Goals
Speech-language pathologists use a variety of tools and techniques to help individuals build functional communication skills that work in real-life settings. These methods are customized to meet each person’s specific needs and abilities:
Sign Language: Visual language for individuals with limited speech.
Body Language and Facial Expressions: Pointing, nodding, or eye contact to share messages.
Visual Supports: Picture cards, boards, or schedules to assist with choices and needs.
Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS): Users give pictures to express what they want.
Voice Output Devices: Tools that produce speech when activated.
Functional Communication Goals: Personalized targets, such as asking for help or saying "stop."
These tools make communication more accessible for individuals with challenging behaviors by providing them with effective and reliable ways to express themselves, while also helping to reduce stress.
How Speech Therapy Helps Build Effective Communication
Speech-language pathologists evaluate language skills and communication challenges to design custom plans. The focus is on helping people express themselves in ways that feel natural and useful. Vocabulary drills take a back seat to real connection. It is about saying what you want, need, or feel in daily life.
For children, speech therapy often starts with what they love. A child who adores dinosaurs might learn to request a T. rex during playtime. A toddler with limited speech may begin by using a picture of their favorite snack to ask for it. These small, specific moments teach communication that is joyful and motivating. It is not just about the word. It is about the connection that word creates.
Speech therapy might include:
Practicing how to greet a friend at school or say goodbye to a sibling
Building words for favorite characters, pets, or games
Using gestures or visuals to express emotions like mad, scared, or excited
Teaching when to speak, how to wait, and how to get someone’s attention
For adults, especially those with conditions like stroke or TBI, the work can feel deeply personal. Speech therapy helps rebuild the skills necessary to participate in conversations that matter. Someone might practice saying their spouse’s name clearly. Others may use a speech-generating device to share opinions during a family dinner. These goals reflect the person’s identity and dignity.
Speech therapists also work with individuals on:
Ordering food, making appointments, or communicating in public places
Sharing memories or telling stories
Asking for help or reporting discomfort
Adjusting communication for different listeners, like doctors or caregivers
Speech therapy may include augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) methods, such as sign language or picture boards. It builds confidence and improves consistency across environments. Collaboration with caregivers and other professionals supports continued progress.
Speech Therapy Exercises
Check out our blog on speech therapy exercises to enhance communication skills!
Teaching Communication in Real Life
Functional communication doesn't happen in a vacuum. Speech-language pathologists work closely with families, educators, and other professionals to ensure that skills taught in therapy carry over into real-life situations.
For non-speaking children or those with language delays, speech therapy focuses on helping them communicate their wants and needs effectively. A child might learn to request a favorite toy using a picture card at school and then use the same card at home to ask for a snack.
Adults with conditions like Parkinson’s disease may work on maintaining spoken speech so they can join family conversations or ask questions during appointments.
Speech therapists teach children and adults how to communicate functionally, using strategies that feel natural and practical.. For example, a nonverbal child may learn to use a visual symbol to ask for a snack. A person with Parkinson’s disease may work on maintaining spoken speech to participate in family conversations. These are clear, direct goals aimed at improving functional communication in daily life
This process may include:
Coaching parents or caregivers to respond in ways that encourage communication.
Collaborating with teachers to support classroom needs and social interaction.
Adjusting strategies based on feedback from occupational or physical therapists.
Creating routines that give the individual frequent, meaningful chances to communicate.
Helping someone with a language delay learn to request desired objects.
Challenging Behaviors and Functional Communication Support
When a person cannot communicate basic needs or emotions, frustration often builds. This frustration may lead to behaviors that feel disruptive or confusing, such as crying, hitting, withdrawing, or resisting tasks. These actions are not just behavioral problems. They are signals that something is missing: a way to be understood.
Speech-language pathologists are trained to look beyond the surface behavior and identify the underlying communication need. Teaching functional communication skills often replaces these behaviors with more meaningful ones. A child who once hit when overwhelmed may learn to use a sign for "break." An adult recovering from a brain injury who throws objects when upset may learn to use a picture to say "stop."
These are not quick fixes. They are part of a consistent and thoughtful plan that focuses on developing reliable ways to express needs and emotions. Therapists often collaborate with families and behavioral specialists to provide realistic, sustainable, and grounded strategies tailored to the individual’s daily experience.
Helping someone shift from frustration to communication brings lasting change. It creates safer and calmer environments, helping to build trust between the person and those around them. Most importantly, it gives individuals a stronger, clearer voice in their own lives.
Frequently Asked Questions About Functional Communication
1. Why are functional communication skills important?
Functional communication begins with expressing needs and emotions. These skills reduce frustration, support learning, and enable individuals to communicate effectively.
2. Who benefits from functional communication support?
People of all ages can benefit, including children and adults.
3. What if someone cannot use spoken speech?
Alternative methods such as sign language, picture systems, or voice output devices help people communicate effectively when spoken speech is limited or not possible.
4. Does speech therapy help with difficult behavior?
When a person cannot express what they want or need, it often leads to frustration and unwanted behaviors. Speech therapy helps by teaching effective and meaningful ways to communicate.
How Connected Speech Pathology Can Help
At Connected Speech Pathology, we look beyond the words themselves and focus on the full picture of functional communication. We are highly experienced in identifying communication goals that truly matter to each individual. Our therapists are skilled at seeing patterns others may miss and translating those insights into meaningful, day-to-day progress.
Because we work with clients in their homes through secure video sessions, we have a unique advantage. We get to see real routines, hear real interactions, and use real-life objects and settings. A favorite blanket, a family pet, the kitchen table; these everyday details become tools in building functional communication.
We don’t rely on artificial scenarios. Instead, we meet each person where they are, with the people and environments that shape their daily life.
Being in the home, even virtually, allows us to build relationships with the entire family. We work closely with caregivers and use what’s already familiar and available to support communication goals that make sense. This approach brings comfort and consistency, and helps each person communicate with confidence in the moments that matter most.
Our speech-language pathologists combine clinical skill with compassion. We tailor therapy to meet the needs of each person, always with the goal of making communication easier, clearer, and more natural.
Summary
Functional communication supports connection, independence, and confidence. Through speech therapy, individuals develop the skills to express their needs clearly and navigate daily life more smoothly.
If communication is difficult due to stroke, traumatic brain injury (TBI), Parkinson's disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or developmental challenges, help is available. Every step forward brings more clarity, stronger relationships, and greater participation in the moments that matter.
About the Author
Allison Geller is a speech-language pathologist (SLP) and the owner of Connected Speech Pathology. She obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Florida in Speech-Language Pathology. Allison has practiced speech therapy in a number of settings including telepractice, acute care, outpatient rehabilitation, and private practice. She has worked extensively with individuals across the lifespan including toddlers, preschoolers, school-aged children, and adults. She specializes in the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of a variety of communication disorders including receptive/expressive language disorders, articulation disorders, voice disorders, fluency disorders, brain injury, and swallowing disorders.
Allison served as the clinical coordinator of research in aphasia in the Neurological Institute at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. She is on the Board of Directors for the Corporate Speech Pathology Network (CORSPAN), a Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT) certified clinician, and a proud Family Empowerment Scholarship/Step-Up For Students provider. Allison is passionate about delivering high quality-effective treatment remotely because it’s convenient and easy to access. What sets us apart from other online speech therapy options is—Allison takes great care to hire the very best SLPs from all over the country.
