Results showed that the children met criterion for each training phase in an average of 170 minutes and 246 trials, and spontaneous speech was shown to increase and challenging behaviors were shown to decrease. In one of the only methodologically rigorous investigations of PECS, Charlop-Christy, Carpenter, Le, LeBlanc, and Kellet (2002) examined the time for three children with autism to acquire communication skills using PECS, and also the effects of PECS instruction on the emergence of speech and frequency of challenging behaviors. A number of case studies have shown PECS to be successful in establishing rudimentary communication skills in children with autism and related disorders (e.g., Bondy & Frost, 1993 Bondy & Battaglini, 1992 Schwartz, Garfinkle, & Bauer, 1998). The logic underlying the exchange of pictures and/or sentence strips is that the exchange parallels the social exchange that takes place over the course of regular conversation. More advanced learners may be taught to construct sentence strips, in which “I want, “I see,” and “I have” sentences are exchanged with another person. Often the pictures are contained in a three-ring binder that the individual keeps on his or her person. PECS teaches individuals to communicate by handing a picture of a desired item to a caregiver, in exchange for the preferred item itself. Manual sign may also be particularly challenging for individuals with limited fine motor skills, a common characteristic of individuals with severe developmental disabilities.Ī second alternative communication system that has grown in popularity for children with autism, despite limited research on its efficacy, is the picture exchange communication system (PECS) ( Bondy & Frost, 1994). Manual sign is not without disadvantages, however, including the fact that a number of potential communicative partners may not be proficient in manual sign, thus restricting the size of the individual's verbal community ( Schwartz, Garfinkle, & Bauer, 1998). In addition, when communicating via manual sign, the message can be delivered quickly, as would not be the case with a communication board or book which involves flipping through pages or scanning an array of pictures ( Miller, 1993, p. Generalization of spontaneous requests was observed across communicative partners and settings, and self-stimulatory behaviors were shown to decrease (see also Miller, Collins, & Hemmeter, 2002).Ī number of advantages of using manual sign have been noted, including the fact that materials external to the body, such as a communication book or voice output system, are not required, such that the system is always accessible ( Mirenda, 2003). For example, Carr and Kologinsky (1983) found that children with autism acquired a requesting repertoire using manual sign following incidental teaching. Manual sign, which involves approximations of hand gestures used in American Sign Language, has been used frequently with individuals with developmental disabilities with considerable success. Other important issues include the degree to which the individual's communication skills will be demonstrated in a variety of circumstances, as well as the degree to which verbal skills taught using a particular system are pivotal for the emergence of other verbal skills. A number of issues warrant consideration when habilitation staff are faced with the decision of which system to select, including the individuals' fine motor skills and the amount of effort required by staff to maintain the system. These results suggest that PECS may be a viable alternative communication system for adults with severe developmental disabilities who have little or no history of systematic instruction and limited imitative repertoires.Īdults with severe developmental disabilities often lack functional communication skills and are thus candidates for alternative communication systems. Finally, untrained tacts and intraverbals using PECS were shown to emerge for some of the participants following PECS training. Moreover, mands established using PECS generalized across settings and communicative partners. Mands for preferred items and for items needed to complete a chained task were acquired more rapidly and in fewer training blocks for PECS than for manual sign. Also examined was the generalization of mands across settings and communicative partners, as well as the emergence of untrained tacts and intraverbals for mands acquired using PECS. This study compared the total amount of training time and total number of trial blocks for individuals with severe developmental disabilities to acquire mands under control of unconditioned establishing operations and mands under control of transitive conditioned establishing operations for manual sign and for the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS).
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