Fading Picture Exchange Communication System for children with autism
A lot of the children with autism I meet has been thaugt to use the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) to express their needs and communicate with teachers, parents and other children. PECS is a great tool to help children with autism to communicate when they do not have developed vocal speech as a means of communication, but the ultimate goal is to develop vocal communication. Not all children with autism develop speech, but many does so after using PECS for some time.
And for those children many teachers and parents is uncertain when to fade PECS. But as I heard Andrew Bondy say at a conference “The child knows”. In my experience this is very true! The child knows when the people in their environment understand their speech, and the need for pictures are gone. So in my experience it´s as with all behavior analysis, let the behavior of the child and the data decide the progress in teaching!
Related posts: