Why Do We communicate?

By: Cassandra Stafford, SLP, ATP (speech-language pathologist and assistive technology professional); NWACS Board Member

Reading time: 1 minute

Different reasons, different functions.

We communicate for a lot of different reasons. These reasons serve different functions or purposes. Sometimes our communication is for the purpose of meeting our needs. More often our communication is for other purposes.

communicative functions: all the different reasons that we communicate

Let’s take a look at different communicative functions.

For Social Connection

to express interest in interacting with another person
to draw attention to
- self
- an event
- an action
- an object
- other people
to comment
to engage in social routines
to join a conversation
to end an interaction
to change the topic
to repair communication breakdowns
to tell jokes
to tell personal narratives
to tell stories

To Regulate

To Respond to Others

To Persuade

To Share Information

to express likes and dislikes
to express and discuss feelings
to name
- people
- events
- objects
- actions
to give information
- about self
- about other people
- about events
- to give feedback
- to describe
to direct people or actions
to share opinions

word cloud of various communicative functions

To Request

a person
for something to happen again or for more of something
for something to stop
help
an object
an event
an action
information
confirmation or clarification of information

To Reject

a person
assistance
an object
an event
an action
to protest
to negotiate
to respond to “no”

To Ask (and Answer) Questions

who?
what?
when?
where?
why?
how?

For Self-Advocacy

For Self-Determination

AND MORE!

There are so many reasons we communicate! Let’s make sure we are modeling language for all of these different purposes. We need to teach AAC users how they can communicate for all of these different functions from an early age.