Upholding Children's Communication Rights by Ensuring Access to Full and Appropriate Language Assessments and...

This commentary is motivated by Articles 23 (children with disabilities) and 28 (right to education) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Article 23 upholds the rights of children to education and training, leading to "the fullest possible social integration and individual development. … " A key component of social integration and individual development, and thus a key target of education and training, is communication and literacy skills. Article 28, indeed, includes combating illiteracy via evidence-based teaching methods. Also informing this commentary is Article 12 (respect for children's views).

Some children have communication impairments that impede their ability to fully realize their rights to social integration and individual development. We address the needs of these individuals to full and appropriate language assessments and corresponding evidence-based interventions. Our focus is on symbolic language, a type of language that comprises abstract symbols and rules for combining these symbols into phrases and sentences (e.g., spoken English, written Spanish, or Chinese Sign Language). Symbolic language has the distinction of being the only medium that enables clear, reliable, and open-ended communication without reliance on the interpretation of a communication partner and is also the basis for literacy.

In describing the assessment and interventions needed to ensure that children with communication disabilities access language and literacy, and thus their ability to participate in their communities, we hope to contribute to the call by Article 23 for the dissemination of information concerning the educational and other services that enable States Parties to improve the communication capabilities of children with neurodevelopmental disability and associated communication challenges.

We discuss, first, the starting point for all effective interventions: a thorough, evidence-based evaluation of the child's current skills, strengths, and deficits across all the domains involved in symbolic language and literacy. We then discuss evidence-based alternative forms of communication for those who need them, evidence-based interventions in both language and literacy for children with specific needs in these areas, and non-evidence-based language and literacy tactics to avoid.