Introduction
As our world has become more modernized, it has positively progressed in the direction of accommodating people with disabilities such as those autism disorders. In combating the impact of autism disorder (that clips the ability of an affected individual to communicate to others), there has been a common use of tools such as the Picture Exchange Communication System (whose details will be described here). As it will be seen in this paper, PECS tools are helpful in not only enhancing the capacity of learners to develop request communication, It is also helpful in aiding learners (with autism disorders) to develop intelligent communication as well.
Background
Autism disorder can be described as an abnormal condition observed in children (commonly under the age of three years) that deters the capacity of a child to interact and communicate; therefore, affecting learning (Ryan, 2011). The research by Mesidov showed that in the United States, about 33% of children with autism cannot communicate verbally (Ryan, 2011).
Moreover, 66% of children with autism were found to have low intelligence capacities that were below average (Ryan, 2011). Among the common approaches that have been employed in enhancing the learning of children with autism, disorder includes the application of Picture Exchange Communication Systems (Charlop et al., 2008). PECS recognizes the limited capacity of children with autism disorders to relate with conventional gestures and verbal expressions that are commonly used in learning (Charlop, 2008).
Picture Exchange Communication systems have been designed to serve three interrelated purposes that contribute to enhancing the communication capacity of an affected child (Ryan, 2011). First, they (PECS) have been intended to enable a child with autism disorder to communicate his/her desire to another person through the use of a symbol/picture that can be associated with what the child desires (Ryan, 2011).
Secondly, PECS has been intended to expand the spectrum of communication by creating a framework that enables an affected child to reach out to a person that may be located some distance from where he/she is (Ryan, 2011). Importantly, PECS has been tailored to enable an affected child to differentiate between symbols to relay a specific kind of information to another person (Ryan, 2011). In summary, the purpose of a PECS is to enable an affected child to communicate in a way that is specific, effective and natural to a child with autism disorder.
Effects of Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) on Individuals with Autism
In one of the many studies that have been carried out to investigate the effects of PECS in enhancing the communication abilities of people with autism disorders, Tincani Matt focused on the capacity of PECS to enhance differentiation skills (Skills that enable learners to communicate particular demands to others) (Tincani, 2004). Tincani’s study focused on two children-one aged one year and the other aged three years respectively (Tincani, 2004). Both children were subjected to PECS’s training whereby the use of tools such as toys and edible substances was employed (Tincani, 2004).
Results from the PECS study by Tincani indicated that both children (under the study) developed motor imitation though to varying levels (Tincani, 2004). While one child was able to imitate and develop up to 43% of body movements from a total of 76% trial responses, the other child was able to imitate and develop up to 20% of body movements from a total of 78% trial responses (Tincani, 2004).
Therefore, It can be seen from this study that a PECS is helpful (at least to some degree) in developing communication abilities in individuals with autism disorders (Okalidou & Malandraki, 2007). However, as it was done during the Tincani study, it is also helpful to adopt other approaches to go hand in hand with PECS (Tincani, 2004). As it was observed during the Tincani study, the child that had developed only 20% motor abilities from PECS’s training developed a much larger proportion (78%) of motor abilities from sign language responses (Tincani, 2004).
In another study carried out by Anderson and Moore, PECS was employed to train a child aged six years to communicate (Anderson & Moore, 2007). Observations on how PECS impacted all the areas of the child including the capacity of the child to play and interact with others were also noted during the study (Anderson & Moore, 2007). Tools that were employed for the training of the child included a collection of more than 25 symbol items, chairs, video cameras among others (Anderson & Moore, 2007).
The child was trained to communicate by selecting either a horizontal or a vertical kind of a strip that was placed in a big folder (Anderson & Moore, 2007). While the vertical strip was used to indicate that the child needed something, the horizontal strip was used to indicate that the child did not need something (Okalidou & Malandraki, 2007). Once a specific strip had been selected by the child, it was matched onto a selection of a picture from an array of a collection of items (Anderson & Moore, 2007).
Following the experiment that has been described above, it was observed that the child under the test was able to develop an average of about six new words during each day of the experiment (Jurgens, 2009). During the two weeks of the experiment, the autism child in the experiment was able to improve his speech vocabulary by learning about 90 new words (Jurgens, 2009). Therefore, as it had been noted in the previous experiment, PECS helps enhance the capacity of children with autism disorders to communicate (Travis & Geiger, 2010).
Although it can easily be seen that PECS helps develop motor abilities for communication purposes in children with autism disorders, there is unclear evidence on how PECS impacts overall speech communication in individuals with autism disorders (Travis & Geiger, 2010). Part of such a challenge has arisen from difficulty in documenting empirical findings from PECS’s studies (Ostryn et al., 2009). However, a combination of other approaches in conjunction with PECS has shown to improve speech and communication abilities of individuals with autism (Stoner et al., 2006). Still, although the evidence is less visible, PECS has been shown to enhance intelligence communication (which is an improvement of request communication); thus developing speech communication in children with autism disorders (Ostryn et al., 2009).
In their study, Benson, Parker and Ganz et al. tried to collect evidence that PECS’s tools transcend request communication to intelligent communication (Ganz et al., 2009). Their study was focused on a group of children aged less than six years that were enrolled in ordinary schools in the United States (Ganz et al., 2009). The pool of children that were selected for the study was a pool of students with autism disorders (that could not develop spontaneous speeches) (Ganz et al., 2009). As in other PECS projects, use was made of pictures/symbols such as toys and other items (Ganz et al., 2009).
As can be expected, all the children with autism disorders that were included in the experiment were able to learn request communication whereby they made certain demands to their tutors through the use of symbols and pictures (Ganz et al., 2009). Interestingly, two of the children that were involved in the experiment developed speech communication following the intervention of PECS tools (Ganz et al., 2009). Such an observation was very important since none of the students were able to communicate in a speech at the start of the experiment (Ganz et al., 2009).
While one of the students that developed speech communication had been initially observed to use single words on rare occasions, the other student had been diagnosed with a speech disorder (In addition to autism) (Ganz et al., 2009). Although there were no clear observations on how abnormal adaptive behaviors are impacted by the use of PECS’s tools in children with autism, the researchers observed that a prolonged study could have yielded a decrease in abnormal adaptive behaviors prevalent in children with autism (Ganz et al., 2009).
Therefore, although it is still difficult to confirm, PECS tools can be helpful in not only aiding to develop request communication in affected children but can be also helpful in developing intelligent communication and normal adaptive behaviors in children that have been affected with autism (Flippin et al., 2010). Such a direction is importantly helpful in helping children with autism disorders develop the important spontaneous kind of communication that is less reliant on prompts from tutors (Which focuses on requests) (Flippin et al., 2010)
In expanding the study of PECS on spontaneous communication, Kravits carried out an interesting study that categorized forms of communication that can be developed in children with autism disorders (Kravits et al., 2002). In his classification, general communication can be in the form of making demands (through the application of words or estimations that intend to point to particular items), making observations (by using pointers to understand particular items, or use of series of words/pointers to understand items and events), and expending on the meaning of ideas and items (through the inclusion of new opinions, ideas to an item or event) (Kravits et al., 2002). In his study, Kravits (2002) focused on the rate of occurrence of the above forms of communication in children with autism disorders (who had been subjected to PECS).
Kravits’ study focused on a six-year-old child that was not able to communicate through the use of more than two words at a time (Kravits et al., 2002). In carrying out the study, the child under the study was helped to develop communication through interactive sessions that focused on helping the learner to identify certain items through the use of body motions and words (Kravits et al., 2002). For example, a particular item was held up high by the instructor for the learner to pick (Kravits et al., 2002).
Once the learner tried to reach out to pick the item, the instructor moved the item away from the learner at varying rates while communicating phrases such as “you want” to the learner (Kravits et al., 2002). Each of the sessions that were carried out in the study focused on developing each of the forms of communication that have been described above in the learner (Kravits et al., 2002). Over time, the learner not only improved his capacity to demand certain items, but he also improved significantly in developing other forms of communication; hence, improving his intelligent communication abilities (Kravits et al., 2002).
Effectiveness of PECS in Individuals with Autism and other Disabilities
As it is commonly observed, several children that are diagnosed with conditions like autism are also diagnosed with other conditions such as deafness (Ogletree, 2007). Here, PECS’s tools have found an array of applicability in enhancing communication and learning among such children (Ogletree, 2007). In the direction of understanding the effectiveness of PECS’s tools in enhancing communication abilities in children with autism and other disorders, Okalidou & Malandraki (2007) carried out a study on the applicability of PECS on a child that was deaf, and with autism disorder.
It is important to mention here that although many children with autism disorders have also been assumed to have hearing disorders, there have been rare medical proofs to prove the claims (Okalidou & Mandraki, 2007). Therefore, although such cases exist, there is a need to carry out medical tests to confirm such claims (Okalidou & Mandraki, 2007). Moreover, there is also a need to carry out a comprehensive study that would detail the common phenomenon of hearing impairments that correspond with autism disorders among children (Okalidou & Mandraki, 2007).
The PECS process made use of pictures and words as follows. An array of pictures was placed in a file. Each of the pictures described a particular item corresponding to a specific card (one that contained the picture with a word written next to it and another that had just a word that described the picture) (Okalidou & Mandraki, 2007). The learner was then taken through the stages of identifying a picture, a picture with a name adjacent to it, and ultimately to the stage of identifying just a name (Okalidou & Mandraki, 2007). Meanwhile, instructors pronounced associated words for the learner; thus, enhancing the capacity of the learner to respond to vocal pointers (Okalidou & Mandraki, 2007).
As a result, the student was able to learn a vocabulary of many words that he could associate with pictures of items that are encountered in real-life situations (Okalidou & Mandraki, 2007). Moreover, it was observed that the learner was able to develop a sense of confidence that made him maintain eye contact while communicating with his instructor (apart from responding to word instructions from his tutors) (Okalidou & Mandraki, 2007). It can, therefore, be seen that PECS’s tools help aid children that have corresponding autism disorders and other impairments to develop their capacities to communicate (Okalidou & Mandraki, 2007).
Interestingly, the use of PECS has found even a wider spectrum of applications that can accommodate instructions with disorders such as hearing impairments (Liddle, 2008). In a study that was carried out by Charlop, Malmberg, and Berquist, it was shown that it is possible to create a framework of a PECS that would allow the interaction of visually impaired tutors with learners that have autism disorder (Charlop et al., 2008).
Such a framework can be designed by the inclusion of Braille in the cards that are normally used for PECS’s teaching (Charlop et al., 2008). In the study sessions, the blind tutor presented several cards to an autism learner to identify a card that corresponded to a picture that he/she had been presented with (Charlop et al., 2008). As can be expected, learners with autism disorders were able to develop communication responses from sessions with the visually impaired tutor (Charlop et al., 2008). With a few adjustments, it is, therefore, possible to accommodate tutors with visual impairments in PECS.
Conclusion
As it has been seen, the use of Picture Exchange Communication Systems is not only helpful in helping learners with autism disorders to develop a capacity of requesting for items, it is also helpful in ultimately developing intelligent communication in a concerned learner. Such a learner can be able to improve on his spontaneous communication and build on his/her capacities to describe, or even add information on items and events. However, a noncomprehensive study on the role of PECS in developing speech has limited our understanding of PECS’s role in intelligent speech communication.
Therefore, although it can be easily proved that PECS contributes to enhancing request communication of learners with autism disorder, the same cannot be easily said of intelligent speech communication. Still, a range of studies (some of which have been presented in this paper) have shown that PECS has been helpful in not only developing the capacities of children with autism disorders to develop intelligent communication, it has also helped enable such learners to develop normal adaptive responses. Importantly, PECS has also been shown to help promote the communication capacities of learners with other disorders that exist together with the autism disorder.
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