Functional Communication

Nearly one-third of autistic individuals are minimally verbal or non-verbal. Yet, for decades, this population has been systematically excluded from foundational communication research. As a result, the field lacks a complete scientific picture of how communication develops in this population, what underlies its challenges, and how to measure progress in meaningful ways to individuals and families.

Existing clinical and behavioral tools were not historically designed for people who are minimally verbal or non-verbal and so, we lack validated, scalable assessments and outcome measures that capture the full communication profile of this population. In addition, multimodal data spanning brain, behavior, and real-world naturalistic environments has been siloed across disciplines, slowing discovery and delaying the development of meaningful interventions, efficient data sharing and accessibility.

Recent advances in tools and technology including precision neuroimaging, naturalistic data capture, and machine learning, make it possible to now study communication in this population at scale. The Functional Communication Hub is designed to build on this momentum—generating the mechanistic understanding, measurement infrastructure, and open-science resources the field has been missing to study communication methods, linking individualized neural signatures with real-world communication behavior.