| PECS was created by Andy Bondy and Lori Frost as | | | | onto other things, we allowed him to work through his |
| a systematic way to teach children with autism and | | | | interests, and made those items available to him but he |
| other communication difficulties to initiate | | | | would have to communicate with someone to get |
| communication. It has been around since the mid 1980s | | | | them. |
| and is widely used with children with autism. | | | | We started using PECS with Peter at this point. We |
| One of the things I like about it is that it reasonably | | | | made cards for all the things he would try and get for |
| straightforward to use and can bring about fairly rapid | | | | himself, this included things like: sticky tape, staplers, |
| changes in behaviour. Children with autism by definition | | | | glue, paper and scissors. We made them all available, |
| have difficulties with communication, these in turn can | | | | but put them out of reach. |
| lead to behaviours that can be challenging. PECS can | | | | Within a couple of days, Peter had completely stopped |
| lead to a reduction in such behaviours. | | | | trying to climb to reach those pieces of equipment and |
| PECS training begins with identifying what a child is | | | | was happily using his PECS cards to make requests |
| most motivated by and teaching him to exchange a | | | | of all the adults in the room. |
| picture card of the item for the item itself, that is to | | | | During the course of the next few months, Peter's |
| say if the child enjoys playing with bubbles, he is taught | | | | behaviour completely changed. He became calmer, |
| to exchange a picture of the bottle of bubbles for the | | | | gave his attention to adult directed activities more |
| bottle, rather than simply grabbing at the bottle. Once | | | | readily, and became much more interested in other |
| the child succeeds at this, he is taken through several | | | | people in the class. PECS was also supporting him in |
| more stages in the training so that he is able to | | | | his development of verbal language. At first Peter |
| request a range of items, with a range of people. | | | | found some words very difficult to say, but because |
| For some children with autism this way of | | | | he was using his PECS cards as well as trying to |
| communicating really makes sense, and they suddenly | | | | speak, we could easily understand what he wanted |
| have a way to communicate their needs that other | | | | and could help to model the correct way to say the |
| people readily understand. | | | | word at a time when he was motivated to repeat it. |
| Here's one success story: | | | | His language really took off as a result. |
| Peter, aged 6, could only say several words and was | | | | Of course, it is difficult to know exactly what to |
| not using them in any useful sense. He was a very | | | | attribute the change in behaviour to as many different |
| busy child, and knew exactly what he wanted to do. | | | | approaches were tried in class. However, PECS claim |
| He was very independent and would get what he | | | | that when children are able to communicate by making |
| needed for himself, even if it meant climbing onto high | | | | requests, this can have a very positive impact on their |
| shelves. | | | | behaviour. I have experienced a number of occasions |
| We noticed how motivated Peter was to use certain | | | | where the impact has been very noticeable. |
| pieces of equipment, so rather than trying to move him | | | | |