What is communication? What is involved in conducting a high-quality communication assessment? How can educators use information gathered during the assessment process to guide intervention plans for children with communication deficits? These are the questions addressed in this article. Assessment is a dynamic process that attempts to collect information to answer questions about child performance. In the area of communication assessment, these questions need to include information about how the child communicates, what the child communicates, and how successful the child is in her communicative attempts. The process should be individualized, pragmatically oriented for classroom application, grounded in a basic understanding of communication, culturally relevant, and should include information from a collaborative team of practitioner and parents. Assessments should yield information that help teams write functional goals and objectives for children. Examples of objectives and data collection strategies that can be used across settings are included.
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