Picture Exchange Communication System
The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is an augmentative and alternative communication system developed and produced by Pyramid Educational Consultants, Inc.[1] PECS was developed in 1985 at the Delaware Autism Program by Andy Bondy, PhD, and Lori Frost, MS, CCC-SLP.
PECS begins with teaching a student to exchange a picture of a desired item with a communicative partner, who immediately honors the request.
After the student learns to spontaneously request for a desired item, the system goes on to teach discrimination among symbols and then how to construct a simple sentence.
[2] The goal of this phase is to have the student generalize his or her requests across places and people and to increase the likeliness of spontaneous communication.
Training should progress across different settings, with different communicative partners, and different types of highly motivating and preferred items to assist in the generalization of PECS usage.
During structured training sessions, the student will begin to work on discriminating between highly preferred and non-preferred items.
[7] The ECS phase 3 App created by Pyramid Educational Consultants provides an easy way for teachers to practice picture discrimination with one or several learners within a single session.
Speech/vocalizations are celebrated by providing the student with a greater amount of the requested item/activity and additional preferred items as a way to promote speech on future exchanges.
After the student learns the basic sentence structure, descriptors such as color, shape, size, number are taught so that learner can make their preferences more specific, such as "I want 3 cars".
[12] The consensus among most researchers is that "PECS is recommended as an evidence-based intervention for enhancing functional communication skills of individuals with ASD.
[16] A systematic review of interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder reported that use of PECS resulted in short-term improvement in word acquisition, but the effects were not maintained over time.
[18] Research also relays that the use of PECS as a communication intervention may yield more effectiveness in children that have challenges with sustaining joint attention.
[19] In addition, evidence of maintenance and generalization effects of functional communication gains achieved through PECs training has been mixed.
[21] There is emerging research that suggests adults with developmental disabilities and severe communication deficits may benefit from the implementation of PECS.
[23] Research conducted by David F Cihalk Et al. combined the use of PECS and video modeling to increase independent communicative initiations in preschoolers with autism and developmental delays.
