A Picture's Worth. PECS and Other Visual Communication Strategies in Autism Topics in Autism

Editorial Review
Most young children with autism have significant delays in acquiring communication skills, a hallmark characteristic of autism. But with intensive early intervention and Applied Behavior Analysis techniques, children can be taught how to communicate successfully, even before they acquire the ability to use speech.

A PICTURE'S WORTH examines the value of non-verbal communication strategies for children with autism, and presents the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) in detail. PECS is a communication system that allows a child to use a picture (or series of pictures) to express his needs and desires without a prompt or cue from another person. Authors Bondy and Frost co-developed PECS during many years of experience working with children with autism, and now share their expertise in this easy-to-understand guide for parents.

After a thorough review of verbal communication development, A PICTURE'S WORTH explains how autism affects the acquisition and progression of those skills. Without the ability to express themselves, children with autism experience a high level of frustration, which is the root cause of many undesirable behaviors. The book explores the relationship between behavior and communication, teaching parents how to recognize patterns in their own child's behavior and when to begin a visual communication program such as PECS.

The authors recommend that parents teach PECS in a succession of six phases. Each phase builds on the previous one, until a child is capable of constructing sentences with pictures to make requests and comments about his surroundings. The book provides many real-life case studies, along with a complete series of lessons, from beginner to more advanced PECS techniques.

There is no minimum age or cognitive level required for a child to begin learning PECS. While PECS is frequently used with children who are non-verbal, it has been used effectively with kids who speak, but do not initiate communication. And contrary to many parents' concerns, PECS does not inhibit a child's ability to acquire and use speech. A PICTURE'S WORTH promises the opportunity for most children with autism to acquire meaningful and effective communication skills.
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Customer Reviews

For non-verbal child - this is a great book!

2003-04-04
It is truly frustrating when your child who should speak - can't speak. Just because they cannot speak - does not mean they DON'T understand. They do understand. It is just that they way of showing you they understand is not available to them yet.
This is a great book for helping you get introduced to PECS (Picture Exchange System) and scheduling. This book helped me get started on giving my autistic son WORDS he could not express.
With this book buy an inexpensive digital camera, plastic laminate and an inexpensive color printer because PECS will change your childs life. This book will help you get started.
We started PECS with Jeff just under three years of age. After 2 weeks he was making requests with single pictures and NO LONGER TANTRUMING BECAUSE HE WAS FRUSTRATED! HE COULD COMMUNICATE. Fast forward to age five and Jeff can read over 500 words, write sentences because he used PECS. PECS changed my son's life and made the beginning process of communication before speech possible.

(Happy ending, Jeff now speaks!)
Start here..

Ok, but not instructional enough 2003-03-21
My son, 3, has been using PECS for 6 months now and I bought this book hoping to find more instruction on the use of PECS and different sentence structures. While the book gives a good overview of the system, I think there is far too little concrete information for parents wishing to implement PECS in a home environment. I was disappointed that right when I thought the author would go into detail about a topic, he simply referred to another publication for more information.

If a parent is looking for real instruction on using PECS, I would recommend the instructional manual sold by Pyramid Educational Products. PECS is a very useful tool in gaining understanding and speech in autistic children. This book just isn't the best way to go about learning how to implement the program.

This book is design for non verbal, not verbal children 2002-10-17
This book is very helpful to parents who child does not talk. But for children that do talk, this is not a book that teaches verbal skills. I purchase this book for my verbal child and when I finish reading it, I found it to be a waste of money.

PECS opens the door to the world of communication 2002-07-17
This book is an excellent resource to parents and professionals who are implementing the PECS communication sysems. We started PECS with our son when he was 22 months old -- just weeks after he was diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder. After attending the 2-week intensive PECS camp, we used PECS as the primary vehicle for communication for our son. We watched in amazement as our child blossomed as he discovered the world of communication. When we started PECS, our son had no functional speech and spoke only a handful of word-approximations. One year later he speaks fluently (although his speech is still disordered), often using 6 to 8 word FUNCTIONAL sentences. I am certain that it is the PECS system that brought him this far. PECS is so much more than just trading "pictures for pretzles" and this book is an excellent resource for learning how to use PECS to its full capacity. We recommend it enthusiastically.

Real Help Real Fast for Communications Challenged Children 2002-05-12
Most young children with autism have significant delays in acquiring communication skills, a hallmark characteristic of autism. But with intensive early intervention and Applied Behavior Analysis techniques, children can be taught how to communicate successfully, even before they acquire the ability to use speech.