Writing Resources
Students with severe developmental disabilities may not be able to communicate like their peers but that does not mean that they have nothing to say nor does it diminish their need and right to communicate Research concludes that students with developmental disabilities need opportunities and strategies in order to develop their functional communication skills For students with severe developmental disabilities who struggle to communicate augmentative and alternative communication AAC systems can be used to provide an effective mode of communication The Picture Exchange Communication is one AAC system that can be used to teach individuals to communicate with a variety of communicative partners using pictures and symbols Thus the purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of PECS among students with disabilities and their peers in their social communication There are 6 phases in PECS training In Phase 1 the individual is taught to exchange a single icon for a preferred item The individual requires to find their communicative partner and hand their exchange in Phase 2 In phase 3 the individual is taught to discriminate the differences between the individual icons to identify the item they want One key element of PECS that is seen as an advantage over other systems is that it teaches the individual to initiate the communicative act rather than responding to a question posed by their communication partner Numerous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of PECS as a system for teaching communication to individuals with developmental disabilities
