NDIS Functional Communication Training
Available across Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, the Gold Coast, and Toowoomba.
Functional Communication Training helps participants develop practical ways to communicate needs, preferences, requests, refusal, or other important outcomes that may currently be achieved through behaviours of concern.
People Centred Therapies develops individualised communication skills based on the participant’s behavioural function, communication abilities, preferences, environment, and everyday support needs.
Teaching is structured, measured, and gradually progressed towards communication that can be used more independently across everyday situations.
What Is Functional Communication Training?
Functional Communication Training is a behaviour support intervention that teaches a participant a more effective communication response that achieves the same or a similar outcome as a behaviour of concern.
For example, where behaviour allows a participant to escape a difficult activity, intervention may teach them to request a break. Where behaviour produces access to attention, an activity, or another preferred outcome, the participant may be taught a more practical way to request that outcome.
Communication may involve:
Speech
Gestures
Sign
Visual supports
Communication cards
Augmentative and alternative communication
Another response appropriate to the participant
The replacement communication needs to work for the participant. If it is more difficult, slower, or less effective than the behaviour it is intended to replace, it is unlikely to be used consistently.
When May Functional Communication Training Be Helpful?
Functional Communication Training may be considered when behavioural assessment indicates that communication could provide the participant with a more effective way to achieve an important outcome.
This may include situations where a participant has difficulty:
Requesting help
Asking for a break
Requesting access to an activity or item
Seeking attention or interaction
Requesting more time
Refusing or declining
Communicating discomfort
Asking for something to stop or change
Making choices
Requesting assistance to complete an activity
Communicating sensory or environmental needs
Expressing another participant-specific need
Functional Communication Training is not automatically suitable simply because a behaviour of concern occurs. The communication response should be selected according to the identified function of behaviour and the individual participant.
Communication Should Address the Reason the Behaviour Occurs
The starting point is understanding what the behaviour achieves for the participant.
Where a Functional Behaviour Assessment has identified a likely behavioural function, PCT considers whether a communication response can provide a safer and more effective way of accessing the same outcome.
This may involve communication that allows the participant to:
Access attention or interaction
Access an activity, item, person, or location
Request escape or a break from an activity
Delay or modify a demand
Request assistance
Change an uncomfortable environmental condition
Access another participant-specific outcome
The selected communication response should be functionally relevant, achievable for the participant, acceptable to them, and practical within the environments where it will be needed.
Choosing a Communication Response the Participant Can Actually Use
PCT defines the replacement communication response clearly so everyone involved knows exactly what is being taught.
The program may consider:
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The communication skill is described in observable terms, including exactly what the participant will say, sign, select, show, or do.
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We identify the activities, people, settings, and situations in which the communication response is expected.
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The communication response should require reasonable effort compared with the behaviour it is intended to replac
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Visuals, scripts, communication devices, gestures, environmental cues, or other materials may be incorporated where useful.
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The program identifies both the participant’s expected starting level and the level of independence being worked towards.
Teaching the Skill Systematically
Once the communication response has been selected, the practitioner develops a clear teaching procedure.
Depending on the participant, teaching may involve:
Modelling
Shaping
Chaining
Naturalistic teaching
Structured teaching trials
Visual cues
Communication scripts
Prompting
Time delay
Error correction
Reinforcement
Repeated practice within everyday routines
The aim is to provide enough assistance for the participant to be successful while progressively reducing that assistance as the skill develops.
Moving From Supported Communication to Independence
A prompting hierarchy may be used when the participant requires assistance to perform the communication response.
Depending on the skill, prompts may include:
Full physical assistance
Partial physical assistance
Light touch or shadowing
Full verbal prompts
Partial verbal prompts
Modelling
Stimulus prompts
Positional prompts
Gestural prompts
Independent responding
The exact hierarchy is individualised rather than requiring every participant to move through every prompt type.
PCT’s data systems allow prompting to be tracked across individual teaching trials, including which level of support was required, whether the response was successful, and whether reinforcement was provided.
Clear progression and regression criteria help determine when prompts should be reduced, temporarily increased, or changed.
PCT’s daily prompting data sheet also tracks independent responses across repeated opportunities, allowing changes in prompt dependence to be monitored over time.
Making Communication Worth Using
For a new communication response to compete successfully with an established behaviour, using the communication skill needs to produce a meaningful outcome.
Where appropriate, the consequence following communication is therefore linked to the identified behavioural function.
For example:
Asking for a break may result in access to a break
Requesting assistance may result in help
Asking for an activity may result in access to that activity
Requesting attention may result in interaction
The program may specify:
What reinforcement follows the communication response
Who provides it
How quickly it should be provided
How long it lasts
The initial reinforcement schedule
How reinforcement will gradually move towards a more natural schedule
How preferences will be checked
How reinforcement will remain consistent across people and settings
Communication becomes useful when the participant learns that communicating is an effective way to influence what happens around them.
Learning When an Outcome Is and Is Not Available
Everyday communication does not mean that every request can always be met immediately.
As the participant develops the initial communication response, intervention may progress towards helping them distinguish when an outcome is available and when it is temporarily unavailable.
Depending on the participant and skill, this may involve learning to:
Wait
Accept a delay
Choose an alternative
Tolerate a brief period without access
Engage in another activity
Use another communication response
This progression is introduced according to the participant’s skills and behavioural presentation rather than withholding reinforcement prematurely.
PCT’s participant evaluation tool specifically monitors whether the communication response is being used appropriately when reinforcement is available and whether alternative behaviour occurs when it is unavailable.
The Skill Needs to Work Outside the Teaching Session
A communication response demonstrated with one practitioner in one setting is not yet a functional everyday skill.
PCT considers how communication will generalise across:
Different support people
Family members
Different environments
Home and community settings
Different activities
Different materials
Changes in routine
Naturally occurring opportunities
Teaching opportunities can be embedded within everyday routines so the participant learns to use the communication response when it is actually needed.
Consistency Matters
Functional Communication Training depends not only on what the participant does, but also on how other people respond.
Support people may need to know:
What communication response is being taught
When to prompt it
Which prompt to use
When reinforcement is available
How quickly to respond
What reinforcement to provide
How to respond when reinforcement is temporarily unavailable
How to respond if behaviours of concern occur
How data should be recorded
PCT can monitor staff implementation separately from participant performance.
The Functional Communication Training Staff Evaluation Tool measures whether staff have the required materials, respond to the communication response as trained, provide reinforcement appropriately, prompt communication correctly, and respond to behaviours of concern according to the program.
If a program is not producing the expected outcome, we need to know whether the teaching procedure is ineffective or whether it is not being implemented as intended.
How Do We Know the Communication Skill Is Developing?
PCT measures observable changes rather than relying only on impressions of progress.
Depending on the program, this may include:
Correct communication responses
Independent communication
Prompt level required
Number of teaching opportunities
Percentage of successful trials
Appropriate use of communication
Communication when reinforcement is available
Responses when reinforcement is unavailable
Use of alternative behaviours
Changes in relevant behaviours of concern
Generalisation across people and settings
The participant evaluation tool separately examines whether the participant uses the communication response as trained, whether prompting remains necessary, and what occurs when the requested outcome is unavailable.
How We Develop Functional Communication Training
Step 1: Identify the behavioural function
We review the behavioural evidence to understand what outcome the behaviour appears to produce for the participant.
Step 2: Select the communication response
We identify a practical communication response that can access the same or a similar outcome with reasonable effort.
Step 3: Define the goal
The communication skill is connected to measurable behaviour support goals and relevant participant goals.
Step 4: Develop the teaching procedure
We specify how the skill will be taught, including prompts, time delay, error correction, practice opportunities, and progression criteria.
Step 5: Establish reinforcement
We determine what consequence should follow communication and how reinforcement will initially be delivered.
Step 6: Collect data
Participant responses, prompting, reinforcement, and other relevant outcomes are measured across teaching opportunities.
Step 7: Fade support
Prompts and artificial teaching arrangements are progressively reduced as the participant develops greater independence.
Step 8: Generalise the skill
Communication is practised across relevant people, activities, and environments.
Step 9: Monitor implementation
We evaluate both participant performance and how consistently support people are implementing the program.
Part of a Broader Behaviour Support Approach
Functional Communication Training is one form of skill development that may be included within a participant’s Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plan.
It may be used alongside:
Environmental changes
Proactive strategies
Other functional skill development
Reinforcement strategies
Changes to support routines
Behaviour Support Plan implementation
Staff and family training
Behaviour data collection
Restrictive practice reduction strategies, where relevant
The objective is not simply to teach a communication response in isolation. It is to give the participant a practical skill that improves access to meaningful outcomes and reduces situations in which behaviours of concern are the most effective available response.
Our Approach to Functional Communication Training
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We teach communication because it provides an appropriate alternative way to achieve an identified outcome, not simply because communication training sounds useful.
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The communication response should be achievable, efficient, acceptable to the participant, and usable within their everyday environments.
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The participant needs to experience communication as an effective way of influencing what happens around them.
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Prompts are supports for learning, not the endpoint. We monitor and systematically fade assistance as skills develop.
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Participant progress and staff implementation are evaluated separately so we can identify what is influencing the program’s outcomes.
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A communication skill should generalise beyond the practitioner and become useful with the people, activities, and environments that form part of the participant’s life.
Functional Communication Training FAQs
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No.
Functional communication may involve speech, signs, gestures, visual supports, communication cards, augmentative and alternative communication, or another response appropriate to the participant.
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No.
A participant may have strong communication in some situations but still require a more effective response for particular needs or circumstances.
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Reducing relevant behaviours may be one outcome, but the primary purpose is to develop a more effective skill that meets an identified need.
Progress may also include improved communication, greater independence, lower risk, increased participation, and greater choice.
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No.
Prompting is selected according to the communication response, participant abilities, previous learning, and the level of assistance required.
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The program includes criteria for fading prompts as the participant demonstrates greater success and independence.
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Initially, reinforcement may need to be highly reliable so the participant learns that the new communication response is effective.
As the skill becomes established, the program may gradually introduce natural delays, periods of unavailability, alternatives, and more typical everyday reinforcement arrangements.
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Often, yes.
Functional Communication Training relies on the people around the participant recognising the communication response and responding consistently.
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PCT provides Functional Communication Training as part of our specialist behaviour support services across Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, the Gold Coast, and our Toowoomba service area.
Functional Communication Training Across Our Service Regions
People Centred Therapies provides Functional Communication Training and specialist behaviour support across:
Brisbane
Ipswich
Logan
The Gold Coast
Toowoomba
Intervention may take place within the participant’s home, supported living environment, education setting, workplace, community environment, or another setting where the communication skill needs to be used.
Build Communication That Works in Everyday Life
Where behaviours of concern are currently an effective way for a participant to communicate or access an important outcome, Functional Communication Training can provide a structured pathway towards a more practical alternative.
PCT can identify the communication response, develop the teaching and reinforcement program, support the people implementing it, and measure whether the skill is becoming more independent and useful across everyday situations.