While the CSI-CY was designed primarily as a guide to help special educators and speech pathologists in educational planning for students with complex communication needs, there are other ways in which it can be useful:
1. Educational Planning Both professionals and parents can use the CSI-CY to bring their concerns and expectations to their student's IEP meeting.
2. In-service training Often, teachers and therapist have only one or two students with complex communication needs on their caseload. The CSI-CY can be a useful guide to training your staff to address all that is involved in successful communication when working with students with CCN.
3. Pre-service training Likewise, the CSI-CY can serve as a curriculum guide to introduce students in training programs to the complexity of communication, for students with CCN and communication in general. The CSI-CY suggests the importance of starting with participation in order to understand communication.
4. Template for electronic medical records The AAC code set developed for the CSI-CY can be used to integrate AAC concerns into electronic medical records.
5. Research The CSI-CY can serve as a metric for characterizing a research cohort of students with complex communication needs. See http://phdautism.blogspot.com/search/label/CSI-CY for a current research project that includes the CSI-CY.