Picture Exchange Communication

People with Autism can have difficulties with trying to make friends. They tend to appear cold and aloof, and they prefer to be alone. [2] The service user will have difficulties talking to others and the service user might need other ways of communicating for example, they might need PECS to help them. The Picture Exchange Communication System helps people who struggle with their speech and need help identifying everyday things. PECS also helps the service user spell and distinguish different letters and their sounds.

There are many different obstacles autism spectrum individuals have to overcome in their daily lives; social insecurities, eye contact, appropriate spatial awareness etc. But in most cases, their biggest hurdle is mostly their communication skills; it’s been shown that communication impairment is at the heart of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and that children with ASD can show a wide range of communication skills as discussed by Agius and Vance (2015). According to Agius and Vance, there is up to a 30% positive diagnosis of children with ASD who will forever remain nonverbal (no consistent verbal communication). With such a high percentage of ASD children it is recommended that their communication and learning needs are to be addressed by using the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), it has been shown as an effective intervention that addresses individuals with ASD and their learning and communication needs (Ogletree, Morrow-Odom, & Westling, 2015). PECS has helped children and young adults with ASD communicate with those around them; their teachers, peers, parents etc.

This program gives children who are nonverbal the ability to communicate in an environment that 's comfortable for them. PECS is an augmentative and alternative communication (ACC) that incorporates the other communication methods to aid or replace speech and/or writing entirely for those with impairments and difficulties. Giving children with disabilities access to these programs in schools as well as at

Protocol: As Jane is unable to imitate motor movements performed by an adult or peer, she will be trained to use a Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) as an alternative communication system to develop more appropriate forms of communication.

Results revealed a significant difference between the intervention and control group on social skill behaviors. Specifically, participants who received the intervention S.S.GRIN-HFA significantly outperformed the control group on skills related to awareness, cognition, communication, motivation, and mannerisms Davis et al. (2011). Results also revealed no differences between groups on measures related to self-efficacy and feelings of loneliness. Children with high functioning Autism can develop greater social skill development if they are taught social skills using a broad based approach to social skills training. S.S.GRIN-HFA offers professionals teaching social skills numerous advantages of generic social skill training programs in that it promotes generalization through community exercises and actively engages parents while proving focused social skill training to the participants.

In the article, “Family Connections: Visual Supports for Promoting Social Skills in Young Children: A Family Perspective,” (2012), it speaks about how children who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to have a difficult time with social, emotional, and other behavior challenges at home. This can be a very difficult thing when trying to communicate and trying to build relationships with people. The article states that, “many children with ASD require specialized supports to experience success in developing social interaction and communication skills” (Moody, 2012, p. 191). Therefore, the article suggests that using visual supports are very effective. Furthermore, it discusses how important social skills are, how visual supports can

Picture exchange communication has various potential benefits to both adults and children with autism spectrum disorder and other related social-communication disorders. The most advantageous benefit of PEC's system is that critical community members do not require specialized training in the program. This is because pictures are readily understood and may be augmented. Thus, the range of communicative partners who interact with autism spectrum disorder individuals is widened. This enhances socialization and personal communication between relatives, friends or other people in the community (Craig, Fanizza and Russo). PEC's enables even young autistic children to acquire

Which is why the Individualized Education Program was created in the late 1970’s. IEP’s provide children with ASD proper personalized learning strategies they need in order to achieve academically. With this program enacted, psychologists, behavioral analysts and doctors began researching the topic of autism and studying how children with ASD learn. They slowly began coming up with effective methods of how to teach children with ASD and how to help these children learn at their highest potential. These methods included DDT, PECS and PRT which have been applied, analyzed and refined over the years to create evidence based techniques that result in the most effective ways

According to Kids Health (2014), “children with Autism have difference in the way their brains develop and process information”. For example, “language delay, trouble communicating with their brains, perform certain unusual or repetitive behaviors, or have difficulties learning in school” (p. 1).

One of the aspects of PECS that I like is how the people around the individual to use this system can see the results and progress, and how the person can implement the same communication skills in different settings. In comparison to others non-verbal communication systems for people with autism from past readings, it seems that PECS have better outcomes and is more recommendable to use. Although PECS can present difficulty at interpreting some of the used symbols, like the generic and mood/feeling symbols. The identification of feelings through cards could represent an issue because a person with autism presents difficulty at identifying their mood and feelings.

Past and present researchers, professionals, and educators have made large attempts at discrediting the "fad" autism intervention, facilitated communication. For the articles cited, the concept of FC carries no importance whatsoever in working with someone on the autism spectrum. This paper looks into those articles to make an attempt at defining facilitated communication, disproving facilitated communication, and explaining the perseverance of facilitated communication over the decades. The main objective of this paper is to explore the concept of FC and increase awareness that will hopefully help in bringing a stop to this seemingly never-ending movement.

H., Carpenter, M., Le, L., LeBlanc, L. A., & Kellet, K. (2002). Using the picture exchange communication system (PECS) with children with autism: Assessment of PECS acquisition, speech, social‐communicative behavior, and problem behavior. Journal of applied behavior analysis, 35(3), 213-231.

This article instructs pediatric nurses on how to deal with patients with autism. The first part of the article discusses what autism is and what the nurse is to expect when dealing with a patient with ASD. The second part gives suggestions to the nurses about how to communicate with a patient with ASD. When communicating, the nurses need to use visuals as much as possible, slow their speech so the child can understand, break down explanations to the child, allow the child time to process, and use concrete language with the child (Brown & Elder, 2014). When receiving the information, the nurses are to wait patiently for a response, and listen to the words and watch for behaviors that may be an attempt for the child to communicate (Brown

This article was written by Judy Wang, PT, and DPT, and focuses on physical therapy can be a great way to treat children with autism spectrum disorder I with significant social, communicative, and behavioral challenges but communication is the one they have the most difficult with. The physical therapist help the kids gain more confident in the skills that they can use it future. Pediatric physical therapists design the treatment so that their movements that they use in social participation are lowered and the ones that are in independence are used. Physical therapist are much involved in the lives of children with ASD, to improve their day to day functioning so when they get older they do well.

The study suggested a few important findings. First, the IPad® was the topography with the highest preference. Thus, they recommended as a possible effective via of communication in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Conversely, PE was the least preferred topography by Lucas. This indicated a trend toward certain types of medium that yield better results from a functional or operant perspective. When the three topographies were removed from the room, Lucas’ mand or requests behavior decreased, this consolidated the findings, even more. Therefore, preference for a specific topography should be part of the assessment prior to teaching FCT. Furthermore, effort response could have been a factor that interfered with the likelihood of using IPad® v. the others. In other words, PE and GoTalk® require more effort to produce the same response than the IPad®. Thus, response effort influenced the behavior. However, researchers should weigh the plausibility of using (e.g. IPad®, GoTalk and PE) without affecting the child’s environment. In some cases, the high-preferred topography may not be appropriate to utilize. It indicated that