THE PICTURE EXCHANGE COMMUNICATION-SYSTEM - COMMUNICATIVE OUTCOMES FOR YOUNG-CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) has become a widely k nown and used augmentative system for teaching functional communicatio n skills and potentially providing a bridge to speech acquisition. Unf ortunately, although there is a great deal of anecdotal clinical evide nce about the PECS, there is little empirical information about its ef ficacy. We present two studies documenting the use of PECS for prescho ol children with severe disabilities. The first study analyzed the PEC S acquisition data for 31 preschool children and demonstrated that you ng children with severe communication delays and disorders can learn t o use PECS quickly and efficiently. The second study followed 18 presc hool PECS users for a year. The results of language samples taken at s nack time and during free-choice activities indicated that PECS use ge neralizes to untrained settings and may have concomitant effects on un trained language functions. Directions for future research are discuss ed.