PECS: What Are They And Why Should We Bother?

It's been a couple of weeks since our last posting. Honestly, we had no idea what we wanted to talk about! The kids and I hash over things that happen throughout our day and talk about whether we should turn it into a blog post, or if it's just a blurb for our FB pages, or if it's just something that we can't be bothered with right now. Then, I ran across this gem: What are PECS and how do we use them? Should we bother or will it delay our child's speech even further? while I was bopping around on the ASD support group message boards. DING DING DING! Blog post!!!!!! :) Everyone here? Y'all ready for some learning? Here we go!

PECS stands for Picture Exchange Communication System. PECS was developed in 1985 as an alternative means of communication for children and adults with autism to "convey their thoughts and needs."  Individuals with autism often learn best with visuals. Accepting this, we must also accept that, for many on the spectrum, visual communication may often be easier than verbal communication. It can help convey their needs, avoid misunderstandings, and even help them gain an understanding of the neurotypical world around them through this ability to communicate.

Contrary to what you may think, there is little or no evidence (at least that I can find or have heard about) that using PECS will delay the development of your child's speech further. So long as you use the system properly and don't force speech on your child, you should be fine. If your child is going to develop language skills, they will. PECS can help facilitate that.

So, now we're onto "how on Earth do I use these things?" Here's how we did it, as per our beloved former speech therapist, T's, instructions:

• When starting out with PECS, don't simply hand your child the card. Say the word pictured in the card (i.e, I would hand Kyle the "juice" card and say "Juice." at the same time)
• As you and your child gain comfort with the PECS, your child will begin spontaneously bringing you the PEC representing what he/she needs. When they hand the card to you, respond verbally. (Example: Kyle would bring me the "ball" card. I would take it and respond, "You would like the ball? Okay, good job. Let's go find it.")
• As your child begins to grow in their communication skills, enhance their array of PECS. Add feelings cards, cards with words instead of pictures (or both on one card), etc. These days, Kyle has a host of PECS that have both words and a picture on them. (Yes, we still use PECS. Kyle can talk, but he has delays and bad days take a toll on his verbal skills.)

Something else I ran across on the message boards about PECS: the expense! The system sounds GREAT, many exhausted parents of nonverbal or delayed kids say, but the cards are so expensive!

Guys, here's a little secret we here at Life With Kyle keep fairly under wraps from the people who don't know us: we're BROKE. Money? What money? We can pay the bills and that's...um...ya, that's about it. It's been that way for years. These days, we have a tad bit of "spare" money after our living expenses are taken care of, but we still live  on a very tight budget, as do many, MANY other special needs families out there.

So what's a broke parent to do? How can we get in on this awesome system when we lack the funds to buy the cards?

Ya make 'em, folks. Ya make 'em. 

Microsoft Office has clip art. The internet has oodles of free images. Magazines, newspapers, the random ads many post offices deliver to your mailbox for free each week- all of these are a wealth of places to cut pictures of the various items you want to make a PEC for from. And the fact that you're reading this blog tells me you have access to the internet, either on the computer or on your smartphone. Most libraries (at least here in the US- I can't speak for other countries! Sorry!) will let you print out pages for ten cents a page, so if you don't have access to a computer at home, head over to your local library and print away. You can even personalize them, if you have the equipment, by taking pictures with your phone or camera of various items in your house and then printing THOSE out. You can then tape, magnet, or velcro your homemade PECS to anything in your house, or take a page from our book and make a binder full of them! We separated ours into categories: food, drinks, toys, clothes, feelings, etc. 

Do you use PECS? Did you make them or buy them? If you bought them, share the links to where you got them! If you made yours, share a picture! Share the links you used to make them! Share your ideas :) And remember: be respectful and courteous, please! My kids DO read this and they ARE young, after all!