Monday, August 9, 2010

PECS

Well, the school year has officially started (for teachers anyway), and that leads me to my first post!

PECS. The Picture Exchange Communication System. This is a great program geared towards autistic children. I had to pass some training materials onto another Lifeskills Deaf teacher today. She is going to have a nine-year-old severely autistic boy who is, of course, Deaf, and labeled mentally retarded. I had him for three years, and introduced him to PECS two years ago. It was a great discovery for him. He has never had an interest in sign language since his autism prevents him from really focusing on anyone for any significant period of time, but with the picture exchange, he finally had control over his wants and needs.  He caught onto the concept pretty fast, and although he is still discriminating between three pictures, it has significantly lowered his frustration levels, thereby lowering his tantrums. It's great, and I'm sure I will post more specific information about it at a later date.


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