Autism - Picture Exchange Communcation System

Question 1

What it’s used for

Answer 1

Used for children w limited or no speech
Based on appliance behaviour analysis, a general approach which uses principles to improve social behaviour including communication
To he,p children make first move in communication spontaneously and not just respond to others

Question 2

How it’s taught

Answer 2

1. Physical exchange
2. Increasing independence, distance and persistence
3. Learning to discriminate
4. Sentence structure
5. Answering direct questions
6. Commenting

Question 3

Research support
Strength
AO3

Answer 3

Charlop-Christy (2002) found three boys w ASD made more spontaneous speech utterances after PECS, eye contact and joint attention also improved significantly
Was also reduction in behaviours e,g tantrums
Support that PECS help children w ASD acquire spontaneous speech and other benefits

Question 4

Competing arguments
AO3
Weakness

Answer 4

Only 3 pps so little statistical power to draw firm conclusions
No statistical analysis of data so it’s hard to know if improvements were statistically significant
Methodological limitations undermine positive conclusions about PECS effectiveness

Question 5

Limited support from meta analysis
AO3
Weakness

Answer 5

Meta analysis found only limited support
Flippin (2010) included eight experiments and 3 group studies in analysis
Concluded that PECS is fairly effective in improving communication in children w ASD
But no evidence improvements were maintained over time or generalised across situations
Gains in speech were small
Overall, limited application and quality of research is poor but shouldn’t be abandoned just needs more testing

Question 6

Potential negative effects
AO3
Weakness

Answer 6

PECS may have have negative effects on speach development in some children
Focuses on just one form of functional communication (requests)
Last stage is comments but are merely responses made by child to prompts are not self generated communications
Weakness as it focuses on v limited type of communication may delay spontaneous speech development

Question 7

Application to treatment
Weakness
AO3

Answer 7

Some evidence PECS is a cost effective application
PECS can be expensive therapy programme for children w autism
Successful PeCS May contribute to greater independence and communication skills