Using the Communication Matrix to Evaluate and Facilitate Expressive Communication in Children Who Are Deafblind

Abstract Difficulties related to communication are common in individuals who experience deafblindness from an early age. Efforts to address such difficulties are hampered by a lack of information about the communication development of these individuals, due in large part to the low incidence of the population and its extreme heterogeneity. The Communication Matrix (https://communicationmatrix.org/) is an online assessment tool that is used internationally to document expressive communication in individuals with severe communication impairment. Developed with the needs of individuals with deafblindness in mind, 7% of the 256,814 individuals assessed to date are characterized by their assessors as having deafblindness. This chapter begins by reviewing new data on communicative behaviors used and messages expressed by 4,279 children with deafblindness, and then discusses possible implications for intervention for these children based on the assessment data.