PECS

Question 1

what is PECS?

Answer 1

picture exchange communication system
- developed by Bondy and Frost (1994)

Question 2

what does PECS aim to do?

Answer 2

help non-verbal or minimally verbal children with autism to communicate through pictures

Question 3

what is PECS based on?

Answer 3

behaviourist principles
- communication is rewarded to reinforce learning

Question 4

what are the 6 phases of PECS?

Answer 4

1) how to communicate
2) distance and persistence
3) picture discriminatino
4) sentence structure
5) answering questions
6) commenting

Question 5

what is a strength of PEC?

Answer 5

it is effective for early communication
- charlop-christy et al (2002) argued that PECS led to increased communication skills and speech development in children with autism

Question 6

what is a strength that it promotes interdependence?

Answer 6

children can initate interactions without prompting - especially because it is very easy to use because it is intuitive for many autistic children which leads to an improved quality of life

Question 7

what is a weakness?

Answer 7

it may not lead to spoken language as not all of the children go on to develop verbal skills and even if they do the skills may not transfer easily to new environments
- children with severe cognitive impairements may struggle with picture discrimination