Getting started with PECS advice and tips please!

[badkitty]

SALT has given us a selection of what I presume are PECS cards (some of them have makaton/BSL symbols on so I don't know if they are PECS or different system - obviously same idea though) and A4 file to stick them on. I have to confess that we haven't been very diligent with using them so far (partly laziness I know) - but it seems so unnatural and clunky always having to have the file there, root through all the cards for something vaguely relevant and then get DS to sit in order to look at them which is physically difficult unless he is actually strapped in high chair. We have been told to give DS a choice of two things which he indicates with cards. I suppose this is fine, and he is capable of doing it when he understands the symbols, but I don't see how getting him to choose between e.g. 2 song titles or two random toys (restricted to the generic things which are on the cards eg bubbles, bricks) really enables him to communicate what he actually wants to do. Also it is still us dictating what he has to choose from by sticking the things on the book.

Can anyone give me any tips on trying to integrate the cards into daily life and in a way that is actually useful for DS and helping to develop his language? I feel very guilty for not doing it properly but I just don't really understand what the aim is - where it is supposed to go beyond us giving him a really basic choice. DS is 2 in December and has CP by the way.

if you're finding the cards limiting have you thought of making your own using photos you've taken and laminating them? Makes it more relevant to what's around your ds so would be easier to integrate into daily life. It's not just about choice but generally communication, so for eg you plan your day in timetable type form and he would know what was going to happen. The cards should also be available for him to use so he can communicate his needs to you. Depends what you need really.

DS2 is 3 and we started PECS a few weeks back.

For us, the SALT started with teaching the idea of the exchange first. So, we just had one symbol (yoghurt - a big motivator for DS2!!) and worked on that. I'd sit with a yoghurt and hold out my hand, the SALT would sit behind him and guide his hand to pick the symbol up and give it to me. Once he'd given me the symbol, I'd say "yoghurt" and give him a spoonful. After a couple of shots of that, he realised he had to give me the symbol to get the spoonful of yoghurt, so did it himself without guidance from the SALT (and without me having to hold my hand out).

Once he was doing that consistently, we moved onto the next part - moving the symbol further away each time. That meant he had to actually get up and find/walk over to the symbol to get it, then bring it back to me. I also had to pretend I wasn't paying attention, so that he'd have to work a bit harder to GET my attention and give me the symbol.

One he was managing that OK, we started introducing new symbols for things that motivate him, although he's only ever got one symbol available to him at a time. We're not at the stage of making choices between symbols yet - the SALT wants him to be consistently 'exchanging' for about 6 different things before we start that part.

Don't use too many. Pick up to 3 that you feel are most important - drink for example - and use them at first. Trying to get your child to use umpteen symbols straight off is doomed to failure!

We moved on from them after a year or so, and never really got on with makaton but they are good for relieving the frustration that they feel when they want something and you just aren't getting it!

SALT hadn't said anything to us about the exchange idea but I can see that might be good with chocolate or something, I'm sure he would get the idea. The actual physical side is difficult as his fine motor skills are not good enough for him to be able to pick a symbol up easily although I can get him to indicate the one he wants. I can't really see him being able to riffle through a pile, find the relevant one, and bring it to me, although I know that is a long way in the future anyway.

Do you have a board?

We had a laminated picture of a train, with a velcro strip along the middle, and velcro on the back of each picture, then they were easy to see and easy to grab.

I have just found the pecs website and ordered a board! And a wider selection of cards.

This is a good site.

here

badkitty, you can't just do pecs because someone says you should. You need to be trained. FFS what you have been told is very bad practice indeed.

Monkeynuts is right you need to master 'exchange' first. Put in a complaint and get someone who can show you their certificate for PECS training to come and train you in the first stage for 2 hours, and then regularly come back to do the next.

You don't understand what the aim is because you have been given shoddy support.

The first stage is token exchange. It doesn't matter much what the picture is. He gives it to you, he gets what he wants, what he REALLY wants. He learns that to get what he really wants, he has to initiate some form of communication. It is the beginning and most important step.

I agree with monkey and stark, exchange is the place to start, but also if you have some cards with signs on them that will be confusing as they (as a picture of the person making the sign) are not a visual representation of the object. Pictures of signs will have arrows showinf direction of movement etc,

ps, some thoughts for the future we use symbols (board maker not PECs, along with signing) and we have an A5 folder, with velcro on the front and pages of symbols in side, and a very little leather folder I had a local bike leathers shop make which fits in my jeans pocket and has space in it to keep 10 or so symbols, which we can use if going somewhere I know we only need a few for, (swimming etc) You can also make them with a hole in the corner and put them on a split ring, so they can be flicked thru if you only need single signs.

Good luck! (there's lots of good advice and support here in SN).

We started by using photo's. Dd2 was only 3 when we started, we made up a small book with photo's of us, our house, nursery, drink, shoes and our car, we also stuck PEC's symbols onto the photo's.

Dd2 is now 4.7 and more verbal, she still uses PEC's at school and is starting to use sentances such as 'I want...' and 'I went...'.

Thanks everyone. Now I don't even know if they are intending us to do PECS or what as it sounds like we haven't been told the correct things to do at all This is three different SALTs as well - you'd think one of them would know what they were doing!