PECS cards - what is your experience?

[lottytheladybird]

Our son, 35 months, is likely to be diagnosed with ASD at some point. His language is delayed, and he's got a vocabulary of about 70 words and is only just starting to put them together.

He has seen a speech therapist who has mentioned PECS.

What are your experiences? Have they helped your child?

But also, are there any downsides? I have a few anxieties. Eg - Do you have to take a pack with you everywhere you go? Do you need to have hundreds of them? Do you feel self concious when you go out (I don't feel great raising that)?

Thank you in advance for sharing your advice.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

PECS is excellent. Badly done PECS is detrimental.

If he has vocab then what you'll be using PECS for is to learn the point of communication WITH and TO someone iyswim.

Having to hand someone a card or token reinforces the idea that you have to approach someone and get their attention in order to get your needs met.

Sadly most SALTS lack the time to teach PECS properly and many lack the time to even learn it properly themselves.

PECS uses ABA which you should also research.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Given you are his primary education, it would be very much worth your while attending an official pyramid PECS course.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Best ABA training I ever had.

[moondog]

Agree with all Star says.
I'm an s/lt who knows a lot about PECS.
The single most useful thing you could do is attend a course yourself.
£150 for two days (heavily subsidised for parents)
Here
Then go to 'Attend a workshop'
Then 'Basic 2 day PECS workshop'

[schobe]

Yes agree that you need to go to a workshop. Then you can be a huge pain in the arse and point out if/when the professionals are doing it completely wrong

You don't need to buy all the symbols, books etc from Pyramid. I did everything at home using ebay and google images.

PECS was massive for us as it sowed the seeds of ABA and the principles behind it. It also moved our DS very quickly from not requesting anything at all through using symbol exchange straight to requesting verbally.

I was sceptical when we first started - why would he learn to verbalise when he could just rely on symbols? But it really, really worked for him.