ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses that communication is seen as an activity that pervades the whole of everyday life, rather than a topic which is timetabled for 10 – 10.45 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. A. Ellis and G. Beattie, for example, use a definition which can apply to both human and animal communication: Communication occurs when one organism encodes information into a signal which passes to another organism which decodes the signal and is capable of responding appropriately. The use of the Affective Communication Assessment has been proposed as a means for teachers to identify the idiosyncratic patterns of responses which might be shown by pupils with PMLD. These responses can then be given feedback in the manner described in mothers with their normally developing babies as a component in the transition to intentional communication. In this study parents reported on their children's vocal and non-vocal communication according to an 8 and 5 point scale respectively.
