Question of the Day: “My child already tried “PECS” and it didn’t work, why would we try more visuals?”

This is another great question that we get a lot from many, many parents.

First off, PECS is a Picture Exchange Communication System that was designed to increase communication. It is primarily used to provide the child a means to initiate communication and most often serves a request function. It is an exchange system in which the child exchanges a picture for a desired object or action and is considered a type of augmentative communication. For example, the child gives Mommy a picture of ‘cookie’ and then Mommy gives the child a cookie.

The way KidSpeak utilizes visuals can be best explained as a Bi-modal Picture Communication Symbol System. This means that it is similar to PECS, that it is a communicative system based on pictures; however, within this bi-model system the picture symbols may be used by both communication partners and may serve to augment communication by providing opportunities to facilitate attention, process verbalizations and segment utterances into key words. So it is here that a child learns “I want more cookies please” as five separate words making a full sentence versus chunking “I want more cookies please” and only understanding it as “want cookies”. It is here where we work on understanding language before we use it in speech. Because if you think about it, if a child is using spoken words that they don’t understand……is it really meaningful? Using this system will aid increasing your child’s communication intentions and increasing their reasons for talking (requesting, asking for help, asking questions, initiating comments, responding to comments, talking about their feelings, talking about past and future events, etc.).

Using picture symbols within this manner is a much more difficult cognitive skill then PECS. If PECS did not work for your child, this could be the case because it was too easy for them and they were not motivated. With that said, if PECS DID work for your child, the bi-modal systen is a great system to move to when they are ready.

We have mentioned in earlier blogs that children with spectrum disorders think in visuals….so we want to give them these visuals in a variety of ways, all day long and within all their environments. Remember, the key to visuals not becoming a crutch is to CHANGE them up! Here are a few quick examples on how to change up some visuals: make the picture smaller and the words bigger for children learning pre-literacy skills, move your schedule from a manipulative one to a check-list form and add pictures and names of possible children to play with to your choice board at centers instead of toys choices.

Using visuals as a bi-modal communication system will open the doors to so many different learning experiences both academic and social. Once you see how much your child can flourish in this environment, it will all be worth your hard work!

PECS is a great system and is great for some children; however, using visuals as a bi-modal form of communication is a great place to progress to from PECS as well as a great place to start if PECS was unsuccessful for your child.

Amanda and Laura
KidSpeak, LLC
www.kidspeakdallas.com