Re: PECS/Communication Boards-Nikki

[Guest guest]

I had never heard of it either until a parent support group meeting.  Two

parents had gone to a training session (along with several folks from our school

district).  Apparently, there is a SLP (I think it was) in Australia who came up

with this system.  It's all color-coded, with tabbed pages of a whole lot of

PECS-type pictures (of course the system can be adapted to your child and use

real photos if that is more helpful).  The initial page asks three simple

questions like, " do you want to say something? " " do you need something? " or " do

you want to go somewhere? "   The child communicates (in whatever way possible)

one of the three (if it is not one of the three, then there's another tabbed

page to go to).  Once the child indicates which picture/question is the one,

then you go to the tabbed pages that lead to other tabbed pages, and essentially

it is having a conversation with the child.  As I said, both of these parents

have profoundly disabled

children with no speech at all.  The kiddoes communicate with a head switch and

they are learning to hit the head switch to indicate which question. 

What is most wonderful about the system, particularly for kiddoes with profound

disabilities and no speech, is that people assume (terrible assumption) that

they don't have anything to communicate or don't have the wherewithal to

communicate anything.  One of the parents told a story that was related at the

training session - there was a parent with a child with CP and no verbal skills

at all.  The mother had another baby, premature.  The child with CP kept crying

and crying, and no one could figure out why - all physical issues were ruled

out, etc.  The mother had been working on this communication system with the

child with CP and, eventually, it came out via the system that the child was so

sad and worried that the new baby would have CP like him.  When the parent at my

own group meeting related the story, we all were just in tears.

I have not looked it up on the 'net yet but I would imagine plugging in " PODS "

and " communication system " and perhaps " Australia " might lead to a better

explanation.

Sherry and Josh

________________________________

From: nicole Costantino <ndcfxc@...>

Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 7:50:54 PM

Subject: Re: [ ] PECS/Communication Boards

What is the  Pods program i never heard of it  is it new  thanks nikki

From: sherry silvern <srsilvern (DOT) com>

Subject: Re: [childrensapraxiane t] PECS/Communication Boards

@groups. com

Date: Thursday, March 26, 2009, 9:36 AM

Yep, Josh started using PECS when he was preK (along with sign).  Josh had only

" ba " as a syllable until he was a little over 4yo, then started on fish oils and

had words within very short time.  Josh will be 11 in May.  Vocab and everything

have continued to increase, sentence length has increased (except for a

regression this past Fall due to stuff at school and other things), but he has

continued to use PECS and a communication device since he is still difficult,

for some people, to understand.  School has used PECS with a visual calendar for

him, a daily schedule, a book of PECS (cumbersome) , PECS to use in the pictures

for the communication device, etc.  School does social stories using PECS, and

his SLP does story boards using the PECS.  I've seen/heard people say negative

things about them, such as the kid becomes dependent on the pictures rather than

saying the words, but I tend to think that is because the PECS were not properly

used. 

Josh talks up a storm, constant verbal conversation, I have no problem

understanding him, those around him enough have no problem (people at school do

which I don't understand - have had several problems with school this year), but

PECS are a good source.  Anything that helps our kids communicate, IMHO, is

wonderful.

BTW, I was talking with a parent in our parent support group and she and another

parent recently went to training for PODS - another communication system. 

(sorry, can't remember what the PODS stands for) - looks very interesting.  They

both have kids with absolutely no speech, profound disabilities, and use a head

switch to communicate.  But, from what they were saying, the PODS promotes more

interactive speech than does PECS.  Might want to check it out.

Sherry and Josh

____________ _________ _________ __

From: drtraceyburrell <drtraceyburrell>

@groups. com

Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 12:03:12 AM

Subject: [childrensapraxiane t] PECS/Communication Boards

Hi everyone,

Has or does anyone use PECS or communication boards with their child(ren)? This

has been recommended to us by our speech therapist and I am looking for

resources.

Thanks.

Tracey