PIP Activity 7: Communicating Verbally - Complete Scoring Guide

Activity 7 covers expressing and understanding verbal information. This is PIP2 Question 9. This activity can score up to 12 points - the highest of any daily living activity. It applies to anyone with speech difficulties, hearing loss, cognitive processing problems, or social communication differences.

The Descriptors and Points

a. Can express and understand verbal information unaided - 0 points.

b. Needs to use an aid or appliance to express or understand verbal information - 2 points. Hearing aids, communication boards, text-to-speech apps, written notes to communicate.

c. Needs communication support from another person for complex verbal information - 4 points. Someone explains complex things in simpler terms, or repeats/rephrases information for you. Very common with learning disabilities, autism, ADHD, and brain injuries.

d. Needs communication support from another person for basic verbal information - 8 points. Someone helps you understand even simple conversations or express basic needs.

e. Cannot express or understand verbal information at all, even with support - 12 points.

It's Not Just About Speech

This activity covers BOTH expressing (speaking, making yourself understood) AND understanding (processing what others say to you). You can score here even if you can physically speak, if you cannot process or understand what others say. Brain fog from fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, or medication can mean you cannot follow a conversation reliably.

Conditions That Score Here

Hearing loss, stroke (aphasia), autism (processing spoken information), learning disabilities, dementia, brain injury, severe anxiety (cannot speak to strangers), Parkinson's (quiet/slurred speech), motor neurone disease, Tourette's (speech interrupted by tics), selective mutism.