PECS advice please

[MummytoMog]

DD (3.3 and speaking a bit, with the odd sentence here and there, but mostly into naming things) has had three PECS sessions, with two SALT who we really liked. Her first two sessions went really well, and she was merrily using PECS to request food items, toys and TV all last week. This week, she?s had a cold and was really sleepy and only really going along with the speech therapists because she wanted to please them and while she picked up the idea of the sentence strip and the ?I want? picture really easily in the session, she basically says ?I want X, Imogen?. We?ve been struggling with getting her to say her name for a while, she normally says Injun, which while cute, isn?t her name. The therapists suggested we clapped with the syllables last week and she got it straight away and has been very pleased with herself. But I just don?t get why she?s saying it at the end of a sentence strip sentence. She?s had some trouble using the sentence strip at home as well, so instead of ?I want X? she?s been saying ?how about X Imogen? or some other phrase instead of I want. But I think I can probably work that one out fairly soon with repetition.

We don?t see our speech therapists again now until January, and while I?ll continue to reinforce PECS and try and get her to use descriptors soon, I?m a bit concerned about this name thing. DD doesn?t talk about herself in the first person unless she?s parroting a phrase I?ve taught her as part of a game or as part of a sentence strip. When we talk around her, we generally use ?Mummy? and ?Daddy? rather than ?I? and ?we? because we?re doing ?my child has a speech delay? talking. Should we use the first person more? Is there a way I can teach her that ?I? is the first person pronoun? The speech therapists said they didn?t know what to do about it at all (great) but that they were going on PECS training soon and would ask.

Alternatively, I could maybe book her some private speech therapy sessions? We?ve had a PPI payout, and while I should use it to pay off some debts, I could salt a bit away for DD instead? We?re in Redbridge if anyone has any recommendations.

I'm not a PECs expert but I think the key thing is to work out what you expect PECS to achieve. PECs is not intended specifically to promote verbal speech, though there is anecdotal evidence that it may help speech emerge. The objective of PECS is to teach communication meaning spontaneous requesting of desired items using PECS cards - which is now happening as you describe in your post. Is she now verbally requesting (great obviously !) but tagging her name on the end ? It may be that because you have taught her and praised her for using her name correctly that she is now over using it? ds1 does that a lot too, when he learns new words, he gets carried away and shoves them into every 'conversation'

I think she is pleased with being able to say her name, but I don't think that's why she's doing it. We try to use her name a lot, so it may be that she's echoing us. So when I am speaking to DD deliberately, I generally say her name and don't start talking to her until she looks at me. So maybe she's using it to be emphatic that she wants this thing, herself. OH has been having a go with the sentence strip today and he didn't mention her saying her name, I'll have to ask him. She definitely knows that that is her name, even when she coudn't say it, and will happily point out everyone with their names, and then will label things as DD's hair, DD's eyes, DD's nose etc (this is good, because previously my hair was referred to as Mummy's tail. I knew we left her with the cats too much as a baby).

We're hoping to move onto colourful semantics, and sentence building fairly soon, as DD has had a handle on requesting things for a few months. PECS is really encouraging her to ask for things that aren't either very familiar (drink, biscuits, tv) or directly in front of her (balloons or bubbles). So now she will ask for food from her food page, toys from her toy page etc, which she wouldn't previously have asked for unprompted. So I guess it's encouraging intentional communication, which is the idea. And DS (20 months) has started using it as well, which is quite funny.

Do you say things like, 'Do you want a biscuit, Imogen?' If so, maybe she's just echoing that, perhaps she thinks that she needs the Imogen to complete the sentence? It's great that she's not saying, 'Do you want a xxx?' like my DS used to, rather than ' I want a xxx.'

Oooh, maybe. I hadn't thought of that. She does use 'ok' in the same way sometimes, so 'I want ball, ok' is quite common. TBH she only says 'I want' when using the sentence strip, otherwise it's always just a one word request or a parroted phrase like 'time for bed' or 'come on Mummy, let's go outside' (although I was impressed by the use of 'mummy'). I don't think I've ever heard her use 'I' unprompted or unparroted.

No, it was only after using PECS that my DS started using I to refer to himself, and even then it was patchy for a few years. Echolalia is a good thing, though, really, it's a first step towards verbal communication which will be refined over time.

Ps, Imogen is a lovely name.

Still doing it today, although I'm really pleased she used PECS with OH, I was worried she might only do it with me or the therapists :) I'll carry on just saying the sentence without Imogen and see what happens today.