After this has been successful a few times you then physical prompt the picking up and reaching but give them time to drop the card into the hand themselves. So to begin with you will prompt picking up the card, reaching for the communication partner and dropping the card into their hand. As each exchange occurs what you want to do is reduce the amount of physical prompting needed. The communication partner then says the name of motivator (E.g Raisins! Car!) and immediately hands over the motivator. When the student grabs for the motivator or begins to protest the physical prompter should immediately physically guide them (hand over hand) to pick up the PECS card in front of them and give it to the communication partner. This latter method will probably cause protest in the student and so the physical prompter should be prepared at this point to quickly prompt the exchange. If you have used food then you will already have the rest of the food in your hand, if it’s a toy then you will have to take the toy back off of the student.
Then the communication partner entices the student to communicate by ensuring they can see the motivator. This is referred to as the ‘ First One’s Free’. Now give the student the motivator – if it’s food give them a small bit (e.g a single crisp, a segment of orange) and if it’s a toy or object let them have it for a short period of time (~30sec, slightly longer for something like an iPad). Put the PECS card for the motivator you will be using in front of the student. This is so that the act of initiating and exchanging can be taught without the student having to deal with auditory information to processing. Throughout this first stage the communication partner will speak little and the physical prompter is silent. The communication partner sits in front of the student, the physical prompter sits behind the student, ready to physically prompt.
At the bottom of the page I have included a file with some PECS of common motivators that I have seen in my work to provide information on the sorts of cards you can made.
Pecs boardmaker free#
PECS cards – In the first post on PECS I provided links to places you can find premade PECS and a free program to make your own.At this stage physical things are used – food or toys or general objects that the student likes. Motivators – something that is worth communicating for.Two adults – one will be the physical prompter, one to be the communication partner.The first stage (or phase) of PECS is basically where we teach the student the basic concept of initiating an interaction with another person and that interacting with other people can get your needs met.Īt this early stage, the knowledge that symbols mean or represent things is a benefit but is not a requirement because this is essentially a token system. PECS Phase 1 – Learning to Initiate Interactions and Exchange