Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is a communication method designed to enable effective communication in children facing challenges with language skills. This system helps non-verbal children or those with a limited vocabulary learn to form sentences and expand their communicative or expressive skills. The concept of this system is based on teaching the child to exchange a picture of a desired item in return for receiving it. The child selects the picture of the desired item and then hands it to another person (teacher/specialist/parents) to receive it. The system consists of 6 levels, which are:

Level One: Picture Exchange

- The child learns to exchange single pictures of items or activities they want.

- By identifying the child's preferred type of activity, play, or food (it must be motivating, available, and frequent throughout the day), and placing the picture on a folder or adhesive tape to secure it to the board.

- Teaching the exchange by having the trainer sit directly in front of the child to receive the picture (a picture of a cake, for example). The child will look for the required picture; you can assist the child in taking the picture by providing full physical assistance (holding the child's hand) and guiding it toward the card so they take it and hand it to the trainer, then giving them the piece of cake immediately.

- We rely on full assistance and then reduce it little by little until reaching independence in requesting.

Level Two: Distance

- We move to the second stage after the child becomes familiar with the picture exchange method for a set of daily requests, while continuing to use pictures individually.

- The child learns to generalize this new skill by using it in different places, with different people, and across distances, to help them increase the rate of communication persistence.

- In this stage, the trainer is located a little further away from the child. The child learns to take the picture from the board and hand it to the trainer. More than one person must be present with the child so that the use of the method is generalized with everyone.

- The trainer prompts the child verbally when they exchange pictures and present them to the trainer by saying: Cake? Or do you want cake?.

Level Three: Picture Discrimination

- The child learns to choose between two or more pictures to request their preferred items.

- By placing two pictures on the board: a picture depicting the desired item and a picture not depicting the desired item.

- The child may select the other item (not desired); you can guide them by saying: You want (while pointing to the piece of cake) so that they take the card and hand it to the trainer. This attempt must be repeated several times until the child reaches the point of making various requests in the presence of undesired items.

Level Four: Sentence Structure

- The child learns to build simple sentences on a detachable sentence strip using an "I want" picture followed by a picture of the desired item.

Training is conducted by placing different pictures of items on the board, then the child uses the "I want" card with the "cake" card, teaching them to request describing the item by using the sentence: "I want cake"

Note: The desired item may be outside the child's vicinity (in another classroom or another room).

Level Five: Answering Questions

The child learns to use PECS to answer the question: "What do you want?"

- The child uses the sentence (I want...) in response to the trainer's oral questions (What do you want?) even in the absence of the desired item.

- The trainer asks the child: What do you want? Then the child answers by placing the pictures on the sentence strip (I want to eat cake).

Level Six: Commenting

In this level, the child learns to comment on questions such as: What do you see? What do you hear? What is this? And learns to form sentences starting with: I see, I hear, I feel, this is, and others.

Adapted source:

.https://www.nationalautismresources.com/the-picture-exchange-communication-system-pecs/

Originally published in Arabic. This English version was produced with AI-assisted translation; the Arabic original remains the reference.