100 Days of Visual Communication -II

Dr. Thejaswini Vikas

Build and Talk with PECS

I’m Dr. Thejaswini Vikas and my son, Nachiketh Vikas (lucky) is 4years with developmental delays. We are doing a 100-days project with PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System). We use pictures of household objects, pictures from the internet, flash cards etc. to help lucky understand and communicate. We are using all possible visual clues to help communicate better.

The Picture Exchange Communication System, or PECS, allows people with little or no communication abilities to communicate using pictures. People using PECS are taught to approach another person and give them a picture of a desired item in exchange for that item. By doing so, the person is able to initiate communication.

PECS has helped lucky communicate better his needs with me, in fact using PECS or real time images has improved his receptive language. He has also started to speak in 3words sentences now..

If u ask me, Hey Theju, why pecs????

I can give you my experiences and insights on PECS.

I tried PECS, I did not wait for speech to come But rather concentrated on COMMUNICATION, simply because

• It helped lucky become Independent,
• He started expressing in appropriate ways,
• Avoided unwanted frustration in him,
• Avoided meltdowns,
• Also finally it took care to respect his choice and feelings.

I’m very grateful to Ms. Bhuvaneshwari and Dr. Rama for guiding me through PECS and encouraging me to take up 100days PECS project.

Usage of PECS or real time pictures or flash cards in different ways

1. Basic needs (food, water, toilet, toys)

2. Teaching family members using pictures

3. Teaching house hold items using pictures

4. Teaching different rooms using pictures

5. Teaching items in bedroom

6.Teaching items in hall

7. Teaching items in kitchen

8. Teaching items in study room

9. Teaching alphabets

10. Teaching colors

11. Teaching animals

12. Teaching fruits

13. Teaching vegetables

14. Teaching vehicles

15. Teaching sorting of different categories

16. Teaching numbers

17. Teaching boy concept

18. Teaching girl concept

19. Teaching sentence making

For starters I wanted to make Lucky’s foundation of understanding stronger to express his basic needs and communicate them in ways every one can understand not just me. Of course, as mom I will understand Lucky’s needs way before he even communicates. It was not enough for me. Something was always missing!!! Some kind of void pricking me nonstop. I wanted lucky to communicate with everyone at home, not just me. That iswhen my journey with pictures started. In fact, PECS helped us and it became a strong foundation for all future communications.

Here I’m briefing the steps which I followed with lucky.

Step 1: I started with just basic 3 cards of pecs to help lucky with his basic needs such as water, food, toilet. It took a while for him to understand the rules of pecs and how to use it. Rules were very simple, just give me the desired card and get the desired item in the card..

Here is the link to a demo video where lucky is using pecs for his basic needs.

Step 2: As and when lucky got familiar with cards, Istarted naming the cards during every usage and prompted lucky to repeat after me. In no time lucky started to label the cards right. Initially there were just sounds and he was trying his best. We did not give up. Eventually with consistency he started labelling the cards and demanding his needs verbally as well.

step 3: I started expanding Lucky’s vocabulary. I started adding pictures of family members, common items used, all his favorite snacks, toys, rhymes etc..

step 4: Once Lucky’s bank was filled with 250 to 300 words of items. I then started to expand his language or communication by just adding 1 word to his previously well known words.

eg: The word food was replaced by ‘ want food’, whenever he comes with a food card..

Then soon I increased his sentence further as: ‘I want food’.. Also I started using action verb cards and connected them to the object in use to help him understand better and future label them together..

Here is the the demo of action verb and object function practice session

Step 5: Since lucky was eager to learn more words, I started using flash cards of the categories like fruits, vegetables, animals, colours, numbers, a to z etc..

He started labelling all the flash cards in no time.

Here is the demo video of lucky very busy with his flash card recitals.

step 6: now was time to again increase his word bank by adding 2 known words, so this time I choose color and objects. I started combining 2 items and started practicing with him.

eg: red apple, brown bear etc..

Soon I added the word ‘is’ and practised labelling as ‘apple is red’..

Here is the demo video of the same.

step 7: Right now, I’m trying to expand his language and sentences by adding 1 word at a time after every successful episode of mastering the words through pictures.

The battle to get words out of him is still on… please stay tuned to know our climax. Even I’m eager to know.

Will lucky ever communicate with a fluent language as in speech or not???? Time has to decide. But that’s not yet all. There is something beyond time too, that’s called hard work and consistency. 100days project will give us so much consistency. It gives us more confidence to fight battles with our heads high. Do take up 100days project and help your child reach their desired goals. After all life itself is a battle. We all keep fighting different battles of our own. may each one of use beat the hindrance within us and win our goals by joining 100days project together.