New AAC users!

[Lighthouses]

Hello people, AAC is wonderful for me!.

[Sunflower]

What do you use-we have started to use the PEC system and it is going very slowly.

[Lighthouses]

Hello Sunflower, Oh..I see..What kind of AAC do you want next?...Thanks

[Dave]

Hi, I'm actually Sunflower's husband so I will expand what we are trying to do as far as his speech development. Our son has had speech therapy for about 4 years now and we have run the gambit of trying to develop sounds, using sign language and a couple other things. His speech therapist has all but given up on anything verbal. With sign language he learned the signs for eat, drink and more. It was determined by both his schools and us he had a hard time distiguishing the difference between, eat, drink, more and would use the signs for go outside, start the mower (loves the mower) and etc., so we both moved to the Picture Exchange System (PECS). I made several cards and chose 4 very basic cards out that represented things that he like and could have a reward associated with it. I am not sure if he is really even paying attention to what's on the card as he just picks one up and hands it to me. Sort of like the sign language thing again, having trouble relating a specific item to what he really wants. So we are just sticking with the PECS and have them on the fridge with magnetic backings to give him a chance to pick one out on his own outside of us laying two on the counter when we know he wants or needs one or the other. Anyone have any advice or tactics?

Dave

[Lighthouses]

Hello Dave, Do you try any communication device yet?..Thanks, :rolleyes:

[Lighthouses]

Hello Dave, AAC is the computer that you communication pages that set up for the kids/adult to click on and the computer will tell you what to said. Thanks, ;)

[karalianne]

Dave & Sunflower:

I haven't yet done the PECS training (this fall, God willing...), but I have some thoughts about why he maybe isn't discriminating between the pictures.

How different are the pictures you're using? Are they really clear? Isolated? (By this I mean, is it a picture of a mower with a whole yard, or is it just the mower?) Simpler pictures (photos are sometimes better than cartoons, too) are usually better and easier to learn. Also, you could try teaching him them in a receptive format before expecting him to choose one and hand it to you when he wants something. You would do this using a basic Discrete Trial technique (or Errorless Learning, whichever turns your crank - I prefer a combination of the two). If you aren't currently running an ABA program, I can explain how you can teach him this. :)

My thought is that he's not "getting it" right now because he maybe hasn't learned the pictures in isolation from one another (not enough information for me to really know; basically just guessing here). It sounds to me like he doesn't know what you want and hasn't made the connection yet that if he gives you a picture, he gets what's on the card. That's why I reccommend the DTT first. Once he knows the four pictures you've chosen, you have to be sure that he doesn't get those items without requesting them via the PEC symbols - ie, no more pulling hands or pointing or screaming to get a desired item. When you're sure he's got the idea, you can move on to more items, using pictures of things that he asks for regularly.

Hope this is of some assistance...!

[Charmaine Leone]

Hi Dave & Sunflower,

We used the PECS system with my daughter Nerida, now 4 yo, when she was about 2.5 yo. It was amazing, we had her talking (not properly of course), but at least saying some words within just a couple of months. Nerida was unable to utter any more than 3-4 words prior to this.

You need to find someone to carry it out with your son and also to show you the proper way to do it. Initially we had an Early Intervention consultant who was working with Nerida, try it with her first, then she showed me how to do it, and then the Seech therapist also incorporated it in her sessions.

It also really helps with receptive language skills, which he will need to grasp before he can carry this out properly.

Good luck!

:cool:

[Lighthouses]

Hello Everyone!..Thanks!:o

[CeleRate]

Learning the associations between PECS icons and the objects to which they correspond can require precise discrimination training. How the materials are presented and how the teaching occurs can make all the difference in the world with respect to learning to discriminate appropriately. It is beyond the scope of this post to fully describe the intricacies of discrimination training.

For the person using PECS, they must discriminate the environmental object from all the other objects present AND discriminate the icon from all the other icons present. This may be a more complicated process than what the rest of us do--which is talk.

Ex: If I held out a white card with a chinese character on it, and then pointed to an object, you would begin to touch that object correctly when I just showed the card. If I introduced a new character without having done any discrimination training, or telling you that it was a new character, I would bet that many people would still respond to the same object.

Without having other characters present at the same time, one is not able to make comparisons. This is an important feature to discimination training. However, it should not be inferred that simply putting a bunch of items side by side will necessarily resolve the issue. The relations that are made are not always the ones taught. There are many reasons for this.

Another issue is: just because one can discriminate a PECS icon does not mean that the icon will be used to ask or tell or make a response. There are many functions to communication and they don't necessarily just naturally emerge on their own. Many times they must be taught.

-CeleRate
"Change in behavior over time"

[Dave]

OK, I have picked up a few things that I am going to try next. First step, throw the cards I have out as they are clip-art pics which my 4 year old daughter picked out and identified as a preliminary trial, but maybe they are too cartoony to be real for my son. I will take some pictures and print them for new cards. I will try just working on one card for now, hopefully after we make one good card connection, the rest will fall into line easier. Anyone see anything I missed or should add to this?

Karlianne,
I would be interested in talking about the ABA program sometime.

Dave

[LBowlin]

Dave,

One thing I've found to be effective in PECS are polaroids. Just make sure the objects are clear and they serve as their own cards. Plus, whenever you find you need to add a new object to your board, it is just a snap away. Hope this helps!

[smileyanw]

Dave,
Sounds like you have the big picture. Sometimes 3-D objects can be used to start instead of pictures. Remember it is suppose to be an exchange prompted by the child so somtimes it helps to have someone to prompt the child from behind to give you the card so they do not learn to wait for you to hold outr your hand or ask for a picture.

[Tashia]

My son was also nonverbal when he was under the age of 7 years. We tried a lot of different things to try to stimulate language, either expressive or receptive, one of which was use of a computer and preschool educational programs. One thing I learned early on was that he, and I am sure many others, have difficulty associating a picture with an object as has already been mentioned, but also have difficulty with what I refer to as multi-stage relational concepts. (Don't know if that is the correct terminology.)

When you show him or hand him a card, he doesn't know what it is for or what you want him to do with it. You are going to have to establish that relationship between the card and the desired object or activity repeatedly, in real-time context, before he will begin to understand the relationship. I don't know what, if any, communication skills your son already has, but you must build on these in context.

For example: Start with something your child REALLY loves, like the lawnmower. However you and he usually go through your lawnmower routine, use that and show him the picture on the card. Take him, with the card in hand, to the lawnmower and start it up. Maybe you could use a keychain or something to hang the picture on the handle or steering wheel, so that the card is present when the lawnmower is present. When finished, take the card from the lawnmower and have him put it back with the others. If his favorite food is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, steal the labels off the jars and plaster them onto a card. When he wants to eat, give him the card and take him with you to get the food and prepare the sandwich. Keep the card visible and tangible to him while he eats and have him replace it with the other cards when he is finished. Anytime you go somewhere in the car, take a picture of the car while you are getting his coat and heading out the door. If you are taking him to school, take the picture of the car away and give him a picture of the front of the school or his teacher as you get out of the car. Use things that mean something to him, in real-time context, on a daily routine basis. AVOID anything that he finds disturbing, such as faces, if he has an aversion to faces and eye-contact. Try to get down on his level and take pictures from his point of view, not yours.

Once he starts to catch on to the process, which may take weeks or months, let him choose the card in response to your prompt. Add cards slowly in relation to things HE enjoys. ALWAYS verbalize the object or activity with simple one or two word phrases when you hand him the card and approach the object. Voila! You have established a receptive language skill. Next you can build on expressive language skills with the same routine and eventually fade out the cards all together.

Sounds simple enough, doesn't it. Just don't give up. Consistency and persistency is key to reaching him and getting something back. Too many changes in your approach send him back to square one -- having to figure out what is expected of him. Keep trying and make only small refinements, rather than huge changes in your technique. Hope this helps.

[Dave]

I just wanted to let you guys know that I am reading through all of these great ideas. Thanks to all.

Dave

[amanda]

thanks to all your v informative posts i now feel i know how to go about introducing a system of communication with my son. before i was a bit overwhelmed & unsure about the process...now i just need to get myself a magnetic notice board & a camera (my digital one has suddenly died on me) & we can start...heres hoping!!

[ROYAL]

Tashia, Are You A Speech Therapist? You Certainly Know What You Are Speaking About. I Could Use Some Help With Speech Goals For Next Years Iep. Do You Think You Could Help?

Thanks Donna

[Tashia]

Sorry Royal, not a Speech Therapist, just another desparate Mom like yourself. As far as goals for the IEP go, I am already so disillusioned with the school system and their therapists as a whole that I doubt the goals will make much difference. I'm convinced that what YOU do yourself, at home is about the only thing that will make a difference.

You know your child, his abilities, his needs, his level of functioning better than anyone else, so I really couldn't be much help. I found that what my child needed was so time consuming and intensive that the school system really wouldn't implement it anyway in any form that was useful to him. Even if we got it written into his IEP goals, they really didn't have a clue.

Good luck and I hope my bad attitude doesn't slow you down with trying anyway.

Tashia

[sabrina dreams]

hi my daughter uses this in her school in every thing they do. We did sign lang along with it and as soon as she learnied the word the sign was takied away but if she lost the word we when back to it. We use the progam every day . We are getting ready to do it for potty training too. does any of your children have great memory . If so have them have the cards for a weeks or so and study the cards . They will soon look for the picture that related to the object. This helps to make the learning step easier. They then take the cards a little at a time and tech the cards while they are swing their lang will improve or do jumping some. They will feel calm and do it at there time not yours. Watch body lang if they are stress or tried. in the morning is the best time too. or late at night if they seek swing or sensory seeking. My daughter likes walks and swing every night at 9 30 pm to help her go to sleep. I do the ot skills then . swing with cards and number puzzles peices at the top of slide then they say the animal or whats on the piece then go down the slide we say (example-number 1 go down slide) then she must bend down to place puzzle in . Next is jumping or same active keep changing it for route and do there sensory seeking they need to do a harder active. Are's is prewriting skills . sabrina can't write or hold the pen or writing tool .I'm just doing one line each time. then a sesory skill to help her. She tell me when she needs it and it will teach her to tell you when it's to much and need help.if they are novebel there body lang will tell you. video tape the skills it helps you out some . try a high chair it helps.well back to the subject have you tryied to have cards for every thing in the house ,things they like try that first. If you say lets go to the potty hand thema picture of the potty and take her to it. the next step is to have her give it to you for it and say it . it takes time but in the long run it helps.