PECS

[Guest guest]

- my son was in a pre-school autistic classroom where PECS was used

extensively. Most of the children were non-verbal using the system and they

were able to make requests and communicate with their teachers. The

teachers felt that it was one of the best ways for non-verbal children to

learn the beginning steps of communication. My concern was that would the

children then just want to use the system instead of learning to communicate

orally? They stated that most children do learn to transition over and they

actually do learn to speak. For my child though, who was 2-1/2 and only

spoke two sorta intelligible words at the time, he would just play with the

pictures! He ended up being verbal and preferred to slowly get the words

out on what he wanted or would drag me here and yonder to get his point

across instead of using the cards. Have the teachers make you up an

identical board system for your home also, so you can carry forth her

learning from the classroom to home. Other visual scheduling systems are

very helpful also. There are also little clip-on picture systems she can

attach to her clothes.

Good luck with all of this,

Message: 1

Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 11:29:26 -0700 (PDT)

From: Glaspie <ladygpie@...>

Subject: PECS

A question for all those who have experienced severe communication/speech

delays: Has the PECS system been used correctly both in the school as well

as the households, and what sort of progress has been seen? Is the child

communicating on a regular basis, or will he/she still at times act as if he

is lost? Thanks. Although my daughter, 5, is picking up sign language

fairly well, I am also pushing for the PECS at school and plan on attending

a seminar so that I can implement it at home as well. I am just hoping for

constant communication for my daughter, since she is having such a hard time

with verbal dyspraxia and simply can not say any real words.