Reviewing Your Results
Using Results to Plan Instruction
The Communication Matrix results may help parents and educators to decide upon general communication goals that are appropriate, given the individual’s current skills. You may develop a general intervention goal (what level of communication to target), as well as specific intervention goals (what specific communicative behaviors and messages to target).
In general, an individual should be allowed to perform at his or her current level of communication, while being steadily encouraged to progress to the next logical level of communication.
The first decision to make is whether to focus primarily on increasing competence at the current Level (which you would do if the individual has a very small number of communication behaviors or messages at the current Level) and/or whether to target some behaviors at the next higher Level.
The next decision is which specific communicative behaviors to target. Should you target only existing behaviors or strive for new ones? This decision must take into account the individual's motor, fine motor, vocal and sensory abilities and any limitations that may make it difficult or impossible for the individual to produce certain behaviors. You must also consider any cognitive limitations that may prevent an individual from understanding certain types of symbols.
Finally, you must decide exactly which messages to target. Refer to the Profile to determine where there are gaps in the individual's communication skills and consider targeting new messages that the individual really needs to learn to express.
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