Ripples in a pond
Author: Avril Nicoll
Magazine issue: Winter 08
Page numbers: 16-17
Date: 30 November 2008
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The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is a low-tech AAC tool designed to encourage initiation of communication. The defining feature of PECS is teaching spontaneous requesting as the first skill. It was developed in the 1980s in the United States by Lori Frost and Andrew Bondy, and was first used in the UK in 1998 where it is administered by Pyramid Educational Consultants. Pyramid is an approach to education which runs from wake up to bedtime and is heavily influenced by Applied Behaviour Analysis learning theory. Speech & Language Therapy in Practice editor Avril Nicoll reports on an event to celebrate 10 years of PECS in the UK. This included reflections from a parent of an 8 year old boy to whom PECS ‘pictures mean the world’ and recent thinking from Andrew Bondy on how we can help children with autism develop the language of emotions.
