The aim of the article is to provide new insights into the lives of severely intellectually disabled children who are living in Norwegian small group homes. The research question is designed to address how these children, who have limited verbal language, initiate communication in order to participate in everyday life in an institutional setting. The main research method was participant observation within three residential units. Eleven children and young people participated alongside the caring staff. The author identifies and discusses four modes of communication, three of them initiated by the children in relation to the institutional residential context: communicative environment, collaborative conversations, communicative rituals, and bodily expressions laden with meaning. The analysis is framed in the context of a monologue-dialogue dichotomy. The findings indicate that in many ways the children appear to act beyond their anticipated limited cognitive capabilities through their communicative work. However, to achieve their communicative potential, the children are dependent on the staff's communicative behaviour and responses, as well as the institutional frames.