AB Project

Kiersten Acevedo, Gabrielle

Hojnacki, Arianne Avila, Katie
Schneider, April Graves
Research Question
Is PECS an effective intervention to
teach social skills to interact with
peers to school-aged students, six to
eighteen years old, with Autism
Spectrum Disorder?
Why we chose it?

● PECS
● Social Skills
● Autism
PECS Examples
Requesting
Search Procedures
● Databases: Education Resources Information Center
(ERIC), Education Source, and British Education Index
● 1984 to present because 1984 was when PECS (Picture
Exchange Communication System) was created
● English only
● Peer-reviewed
The Search
Inclusion Criteria
● Autism= as defined as IDEA
○ Included participants with Autism and another disability
○ Included Aspergers
● Social skills= using language skills to interact with basic communication
skills and interpersonal skills with peers
○ Included peer interaction, language, and communication
● Peers= same age children who interact with each other in a school or public
setting
● PECS=an approach to emphasize non-verbal communication through
symbolism
● Included academic or domestic setting; Excluded clinics or medical
treatment centers
Article-Reviewing Process
● We read the abstracts and other parts of the article as
needed to determine if the article fit our inclusion
criteria.
● We followed the definitions for the terms and the
requirements for what was included or excluded.
● By the end of the reviewing process, there were ten
articles included.
 Train peers
Summary of Findings
●
following specific
procedures
including modeling
● Use colored
pictures
● Implement with
fidelity
Negatives
Positives ● May be limited to requesting
● Works better than other similar items, not causal social
interventions conversations
● More effective with
● Increases functional
higher-functioning Autism, not
communication and the use of lower-functioning
symbols ● More commonly used between
● PECS can be used with peers and an adult and a student
adults. ● Special training for students to
use PECS with peers
● Can help students with
requesting items
Implications for Teachers
it does not make a
When teaching directly teach it, especially to
nonverbal children. Teachers difference if you

PECS... shouldn’t assume that they will just

learn it on their own. There are a set
verbally state the word
when teaching
number/order of steps in the process

teach it to peers in the

classroom also, so that teach students to introduce real
everyone understands use descriptor cards objects and practice
and can communicate like colors and
using cards with real
with each other shapes, so they can
communicate a pictures, to make
wider array of generalization as
words with fewer easy as possible
cards
Implications for Families
Parents can
Siblings can learn to effectively teach
use PECS to interact their children how
Families may with each other. to use PECS
consider specifically
teaching
using PECS improvisation
skills.
with children PECS can be used
with ASD. in a variety of
settings including
the home and
community.
Implications for Students
Interactions
PECS does not
require
In order for PECS
to work in a
might be limited
speaking-
nonverbal social setting, to simple request,
peers must learn
students can use
this. PECS as well, not based on
just adults. students’ level of
Interaction between
functioning.
can
two students who Learning PECS
have autism and both give students a
to
use PECS is difficult, voice to be able
with
communicate
but not impossible. their peers
Implications for the Field helps ALL students
with autism: no
matter what their
age, gender, and/or
PECS... teaches attention
grade.
to objects and
people in order to pictures can
communicate.
can significantly
and should be
improve the way a objects in the
is a low-technology student engages with his users life.
way to improve or her peers. The
communication and student should be able to
requesting skills. have the skills to interact
with peers in highly
should use social time like free play.
colored
pictures.
Resources
Anderson, L. (2016). Picture Exchange Communication System for individuals with autism spectrum
disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals (JAASEP).

Chaabane, D. B., Alber-Morgan, S. R., & DeBar, R. M. (2009). The effects of parent-implemented PECS
training on improvisation of mands by children with autism. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42(3),
671-677.

Gordon, K., McElduff, F., Wade, A., Charman, T., Pasco, G., & Howlin, P. (2011). A communication-based
intervention for nonverbal children with autism: What changes? Who benefits?. Journal Of Consulting &
Clinical Psychology, 79(4), 447-457. doi:10.1037/a0024379

Hartley, C., & Allen, M. L. (2015). Symbolic understanding of pictures in low-functioning children with
autism: The effects of iconicity and naming. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45(1), 15-30.

Howlin, P., Gordon, R. K., Pasco, G., Wade, A., & Charman, T. (2007). The effectiveness of Picture
Exchange Communication System (PECS) training for teachers of children with autism: a pragmatic,
group randomised controlled trial. Journal Of Child Psychology And Psychiatry, 48(5), 473-481.
Resources
Kodak, T., Paden, A., & Dickes, N. (2012). Training and generalization of peer-directed mands with
non-vocal children with autism. Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 28119-124

Kravits, T. R., Kamps, D. M., & Kemmerer, K. (2002). Brief report: Increasing communication skills for an
elementary-aged student with autism using the picture exchange communication system. Journal of
Autism & Developmental Disorders, 32(3), 225-230.

Odluyurt, S. s., Aldemir, O. o., & Kapan, A. a. (2016). An investigation on the effects of PECS and
observational learning in initiating and maintenance of communication among children with autism.
International Journal of Early Childhood Special Education, 8(2).

Paden, A. R., Kodak, T. t., Fisher, W. W., Gawley-Bullington, E. M., & Bouxsein, K. J. (2012). Teaching
children with autism to engage in peer-directed mands using a picture exchange communication
system. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 45(2), 425-429.
Resources
Sulzer-Azaroff, B., Hoffman, A. O., Horton, C. B., Bondy, A., & Frost, L. (2009). The Picture Exchange
Communication System (PECS): What do the data say?. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental
Disabilities, 24(2), 89-103.

Thiemann-Bourque, K. t., Brady, N., McGuff, S., Stump, K., & Naylor, A. (2016). Picture Exchange
Communication System and pals: A peer-mediated augmentative and alternative communication
intervention for minimally verbal preschoolers with autism. Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing
Research, 59(5).

Tincani, M., & Devis, K. (2011). Quantitative synthesis and component analysis of single-participant
studies on the Picture Exchange Communication System. Remedial And Special Education, 32(6),
458-470.

Yoder, P. J., & Lieberman, R. G. (2010). Brief report: Randomized test of the efficacy of Picture Exchange
Communication System on highly generalized picture exchanges in children with ASD. Journal of
Autism & Developmental Disorders, 40(5), 629-632.