PECS

[moira199]

Does anyone have any experience of what is realistic to expect of a 2 1/2 year old starting PECS ? Will it several months to work up to card exchange?

 

MOira

 

ps would love to offer more replies to others - hugs and moral support to all in the meantime

[Jill]

Me again! We've been doing PECs for around a year & we're still really on the timetable stage. Exchanging started at special nursery around 4 months ago. The Boy has just (in the last month or so) started looking through his PECs to communicate something to us when he can't in another way i.e. by taking us to what he wants, but this is sporadic.

 

I think it depends child to child really tho.

[elun1]

Hi Moira

My ds is 5 now and has some speech so he refuses to use PECS book most of the time. However when he was 2 and a half I went on 2 day PECS course and started with him with the help of a Speech and Lang therapy assistant. He amazed me by flying through the first 3 phases and was quickly offering cards to get things he wanted. However he was always much keener to use the 'biscuit' and 'cake' cards than any others!

With less desirable items he was far less willing to comply! He is at the severe end of the spectrum with SLD so I was amazed at that he picked up on PECS so quickly but I think the key was to work with items he really wanted and also to have another adult on hand to help. This is particularly important when you're doing the first phase. If you need any further details don't hesitate to PM me.

Elun xx

[sharron]

my son is 10 and he has been using pecs for the past 5 yrs, he can make up quite long sentences and he communicates quite well using this system as well as the few words that he can say.

[Emum]

No set rule of thumb, but there are things you can do which will help. Your SLT should be able to advise. There is a strict hierarchy using PECs and you really need someone who has done the training to guide you through the process. We found it after about 18 months that our independent SLT, who was charging us �80 a week for the privilege wasn't in fact trained and had used some incorrect techniques which had confused rather than advanced DD!

 

Back to the point though. It will help if you start off with requesting highly motivating things (usually food). Only give a small amount, so he has to request again very quickly (eg about an eighth of a choc button). You'll need a partner to assist you for several months probably to make sure this gets reinforced. As soon as he can do food, widen it out to other things so he knows it can be used for a range of things. You need to phase physical prompts as quickly as you can. Don't let your child be rushed into starting a new phase before he has fully mastered the one he is at, otherwise it will take longer in the long run. He needs to have fully mastered handing over one card, with no prompts at all before you even think about asking him to travel with the card, or choose between more than one card. You may need to experiment with what works best for your child - photos or drawings of the object, and stick with that until the process is mastered at which point you can think about getting him to generalise the skill. Be aware if it is an NHS SLT they will probably have to rush the process if they are seeing your child in blocks of sessions, to ensure that it is all taught to him, but this is not the best thing for your child at the end of the day.

 

My DD started to be taught PECS when she was 2, and is now nearly 6. For the first year, she needed lots of prompting to hand over a card to request something. Her SLT rushed her on to teach her discrimination and travelling skills, and even using the sentence strip, and she never really got the hang of any of it. She started school at 3, and with lots of practice she learned to exchange a card and to discriminate in a formal setting (eg at snack time round the table). She still needs lots of prompting to use it, and it is very unlikely that she would go and get her book and bring me a symbol if she wanted something, but on the plus side she is starting to attempt to ask for things orally, and she has learned a lot of the vocab from her PECs book, so the whole process has not been wasted.

[Lynden]

Hi there

 

Logan is newly 3 and we've been doing PECS on and off for about 6 months but its actually amazing how quickly they pick it up when things like food are involved. We were amazed. My SALT is fab though and I'm going on the two day course myself next week so we can start to really work on it as a means of communication.

 

He'll be using it in nursery also as he's completely non-verbal.

 

Lynne x