PECS

Picture Exchange Communication System

Introduction:

In the history of mankind, it is always believed that the children with disability are nature of imperfection. But the lost essence here is to believe that they are differently able and they are special in the eyes of the creator of this universe. Their needs are different, their skills are different and one must understand the depth of their essentials to nurture them in the society of manhood.

Our world has witnessed consensus on growing needs for many differently able children who seek special attentions, hopes and strengths to overcome the challenges in their livelihood. We must stand against odd for uplifting these special lives with today’s growing assistive technology that help to create a change in the current environment.

Through the academic journey towards learning and development in the field of special education, the researcher has come across many differently able children who need different methodology to rehabilitate them. There are children, who have one disability or combination of disabilities caused by genetic and other causes. The researcher came across communication difficulties in them. Communication difficulties create a major obstacle among them in socializing with outer world.

Communication is a learned skill that one can develop with constant practice and proven technique. One cannot imagine a world exist without communication. Most people are born with the physical ability to talk, but not all can communicate well unless they make special efforts to develop and refine this skill. Very often, we take the ease with which we communicate with each other for granted, so much so that we sometimes forget how complex the communication process is. With every interaction, whether active or passive, we find ourselves communicating with other people. Even our silence connotes some intention, which others may interpret at their discretion.

The picture exchange communication system (PECS) is a form of augmentative and alternative communication produced by Pyramid Educational Consultants, Inc. While the system is commonly used as a communication aid for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), it has been used with a wide variety of learners, from preschoolers to adults, who have various communicative, cognitive, and physical impairments, including cerebral palsy, blindness, and deafness. PECS has been the subject of much academic research, with currently over 85 PECS-related publications.

PECS is one of the approaches that helps to teach communication skill in the pictorial method. It is the method to exchange the picture what they want? It has six phases. Every phase makes the child independently to express his/her need in community. Many institutions and schools are practicing PECS for their children. It is one of the effective approaches to enhance and encourage communication in the children with special needs.

PECS was developed in 1985 at the Delaware Autism Program by Lori Frost and Andy Bondy. They noted that traditional communication techniques, including speech imitation, sign language, and picture point systems, relied on the teacher to initiate social interactions and none focused on teaching students to initiate interactions. Based on these observations, Frost and Bondy created a functional means of communication for individuals with a variety of communication challenges.

PECS is designed to teach functional communication skills with an initial focus on spontaneous communication. It has been and continues to be implemented in a variety of settings and contexts (home, school, community) so users have the skills to communicate their wants and needs. PECS does not require complex or expensive materials since it uses picture symbols as the modality. PECS is a method to teach young children or any individual with communication impairment a way to communicate within a social context. Research has shown that many preschoolers using PECS also begin developing speech. Based on the current evidence base, PECS has been described as an emerging treatment shown to increase communication skills for individuals with ASD.

The goal of PECS is spontaneous and functional communication. Verbal prompts are not used during the early phases, thus building immediate initiation and avoiding prompt dependency. PECS begins with teaching a student to exchange a picture of a desired item with a teacher/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. In the most advanced phases, individuals are taught to respond to questions and to comment. Additionally, descriptive language concepts such as size, shape, color, number etc., are also taught so the student can make his/her message more specific. For example, I want big yellow ball.

            The first phase of PECS is the initial communication training or picture exchange, where the student is taught to hand a picture to the trainer in exchange for a desired item (Flippin et al., 2010). Physical prompts can be used with a second trainer and are quickly faded (Ganz et al., 2005). 

PECS phase 1

    The second phase is the distance phase which requires the student to retrieve a picture from their communication book and deliver it to the trainer or communicative partner (Ganz et al., 2012).  This phase also focuses on generalization among communicative partners’ distances (Ganz et al., 2005), contexts, and rein forcers.

PECS phase 2

                                       

    The third phase focuses on picture discrimination by using highly desired items along with non-desired items to ensure that the student is actually requesting the preferred item. 

PECS phase 3

            During Phase 4, sentence structure or phrases are taught by using an “I want” phrase followed by the desired item (Ganz  et al., 2012), requiring the student to use two picture representations (Flippin et al., 2010). 

PECS phase 4

Phase 5, the answering questions phase, expands on previously taught skills by teaching the student to respond to questions, such as “What do you want?” (Ganz et al.,2005).  The final phase of PECS is the commenting phase, where the student is taught to expand their use of sentence strips by using phrases, such as “I hear,” “I see,” “I feel,” etc. (Ganz et al., 2012) to answer questions from the communicative partner.  Once all six phases of PECS are implemented, additional training can be taught to expand the use of verbs, numbers, yes/no answers, etc. (Flippin et al., 2010).

Communication board

PECS has some basic and elements in it. that are functional activities, powerful reinforces, functional communication. PECS also has advantages and that is it make interaction with others, initiation, requires what they want?

Outline of PECS 

PECS PHASE	SKILLS TAUGHT
1: Initial picture exchange	The student is trained to hand a picture to the trainer in exchange for a desired item.
2: Distance phase and generalization	The student is required to retrieve a picture from their communication book and deliver it to the communicative partner.
3: Picture discrimination	Highly desired items are used in conjunction with non-desired items.
4: Sentence structure	The phrase “I want”, followed by the desired item is used to begin teaching sentence structure.
5: Answering questions	Previously taught skills are used to answer questions from the communicative partner.
6: Commenting phase	The use of sentence strips is expanded by adding additional phrases, such as “I hear,” “I feel,” “I see,” etc.

Definitions

Children with Special Needs:

Children who have a disability or combination of disabilities that makes difficult in their daily life. Children with Special needs includes Mental Retardation, Cerebral Palsy, Developmental delay, visual impairment, hearing impairment, autism, down syndrome and other disabilities.

Children has any of various difficulties such as a physical, emotional, behavioral, or learning disability or impairment that causes an individual to require additional or specialized services or accommodations such as in education or recreation.

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS):

                Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is a picture-based AAC device (Ganz, Cook, Corbin-Newsome, Bourgeois, & Flores, 2005) created by Andrew Bondy and Lori Frost in 1985 for individuals with autism and similar developmental disabilities (Pyramid Educational Consultants, n.d.).  PECS requires the student to exchange a picture representing a preferred item for the physical item (Ganz et al., 2005). Expressive communication skills are focused on throughout the training of PECS by making requests and, later, commenting (Flippin, Reszka, & Watson, 2010). Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is one of the AAC (Alternative and Augmentative Communication) method to improve communication skill especially for the children with autism. It has six phases to improve verbal communication skill.

Communication:

           According to RPWD act (Rights of Persons with Disabilities act 2016) “communication” includes means and formats of communication, languages, display of text, Braille, tactile communication, signs, large print, accessible multimedia, written, audio, video, visual displays, sign language, plain-language, human-reader, augmentative and alternative modes and accessible information and communication technology. Communication is a way of express feelings or message from an individual to individual. It plays an important role in everyone’s life. It has two modes. Verbal communication and Non verbal communication.