'What's in the box?': assessing physically disabled children's communication skills

Abstract
The paper describes a scripted elicitation procedure for assessing the communication skills of nonspeaking physically disabled children. Preliminary data are reported for 16 children attending the Communica tion Aids Centre for children, London. Functions of communication, such as requests for clarification and expression of self, were more likely to be used by children during the scripted procedure with an unfamiliar adult than when they were observed in interaction with a parent.