A Picture's Worth: PECS and Other Visual Communication Strategies in Autism (Topics in Autism) (Paperback)

by Andy, Ph.D. Bondy (Author), Lori Frost (Author) "What is the essence of communication?..." (more)
Key Phrases: functional communication skills, young children with autism, physical prompting, Picture Exchange Communication System, Woodbine House, American Sign Language (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Strongly recommended for public libraries and academic libraries with education or behavioral programs."

Product Description
Most young children with autism have significant delays in acquiring communication skills, a hallmark characteristic of autism. But with intensive early intervention and Applied Behavior Analysis techniques, children can be taught how to communicate successfully, even before they acquire the ability to use speech.

A PICTURE'S WORTH examines the value of non-verbal communication strategies for children with autism, and presents the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) in detail. PECS is a communication system that allows a child to use a picture (or series of pictures) to express his needs and desires without a prompt or cue from another person. Authors Bondy and Frost co-developed PECS during many years of experience working with children with autism, and now share their expertise in this easy-to-understand guide for parents.

After a thorough review of verbal communication development, A PICTURE'S WORTH explains how autism affects the acquisition and progression of those skills. Without the ability to express themselves, children with autism experience a high level of frustration, which is the root cause of many undesirable behaviors. The book explores the relationship between behavior and communication, teaching parents how to recognize patterns in their own child’s behavior and when to begin a visual communication program such as PECS.

The authors recommend that parents teach PECS in a succession of six phases. Each phase builds on the previous one, until a child is capable of constructing sentences with pictures to make requests and comments about his surroundings. The book provides many real-life case studies, along with a complete series of lessons, from beginner to more advanced PECS techniques.

There is no minimum age or cognitive level required for a child to begin learning PECS. While PECS is frequently used with children who are non-verbal, it has been used effectively with kids who speak, but do not initiate communication. And contrary to many parents’ concerns, PECS does not inhibit a child’s ability to acquire and use speech. A PICTURE'S WORTH promises the opportunity for most children with autism to acquire meaningful and effective communication skills.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 155 pages
• Publisher: Woodbine House; 1 edition (December 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0933149964
• ISBN-13: 978-0933149960
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #252,823 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #46 in	Books > Nonfiction > Education > Special Education > Mentally Disabled
  #75 in	Books > Nonfiction > Education > Special Education > Communicative Disorders

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For non-verbal child - this is a great book!, April 3, 2003

By	Lisa Ackerman (Newport Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is truly frustrating when your child who should speak - can't speak. Just because they cannot speak - does not mean they DON'T understand. They do understand. It is just that they way of showing you they understand is not available to them yet.
This is a great book for helping you get introduced to PECS (Picture Exchange System) and scheduling. This book helped me get started on giving my autistic son WORDS he could not express.
With this book buy an inexpensive digital camera, plastic laminate and an inexpensive color printer because PECS will change your childs life. This book will help you get started.
We started PECS with Jeff just under three years of age. After 2 weeks he was making requests with single pictures and NO LONGER TANTRUMING BECAUSE HE WAS FRUSTRATED! HE COULD COMMUNICATE. Fast forward to age five and Jeff can read over 500 words, write sentences because he used PECS. PECS changed my son's life and made the beginning process of communication before speech possible.

(Happy ending, Jeff now speaks!)
Start here..

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real Help Real Fast for Communications Challenged Children, May 11, 2002

By	Liane Gentry Skye, "www.writersgonewild.blogs... (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

"A Picture's Worth" is simply a must read for anyone who seeks help for a child who is challenged by verbal communications.

The authors, Andy Bondy and Lori Frost are the developers of PECS (The Picture Exchange Communications System). PECS seeks to quickly establish functional communications with children with autism. Contrary to popular belief, PECS will not discourage a child from developing verbal speech, or cause a child to lose established speech.

Although the therapeutic goal of PECS seeks only to rapidly establish functional augmented communications by teaching a child to exchange a picture icon for a highly desired item, the program's application in preschoolers offers a marvelous side effect. Approximately two-thirds of the children under five who used PECS as their primary means of communications for a full year moved on to develop verbal language.

A Picture's Worth describes in user friendly language the mechanics and theories behind the six successive levels of implementing PECS. Bondy and Frost's user friendly language and clearly written commentary makes it easy for anyone who is interested in establishing communications with their autistic child to begin training.

The book also offers compelling case studies, and an overview of the innovative and effective behavioral techniques of Bondy and Frost's companion program, "The Pyramid Approach to Education".

PECS is particularly effective when combined with the behavioral techniques of the Pyramid Approach to education, and offers the child who has struggled to find success with Lovaas based ABA and other intervetion programs an inexpensive option which will appeal to the well documented visual strengths of children with autism.

Anyone considering implementing a beginning intervention program with a child with autism should consider taking a look at this insightful, easy to read, and well written contribution to the body of literature regarding autism teaching methods.

PECS is a marvelous stand alone program for beginning communicators, but it can also coexist nicely with any other early intervention programs, allowing your child to communicate effectively and naturally reduce negative behaviors while alternative interventions seek to teach verbal language.

As the mother of two boys with autism, I wish I'd begun PECS on the day of their diagnoses. However, I'd be sure to advance them to more sophisticated means of augmented communications as they age out of early intervention as most children with autism will find that they have much more to communicate than their basic wants and needs. Moving along towards more advanced techonology in communications systems will allow them to do so, and prevent many of the negative behaviors that came back to our son when his method of communications failed to grow with him.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ok, but not instructional enough, March 20, 2003

By A Customer

My son, 3, has been using PECS for 6 months now and I bought this book hoping to find more instruction on the use of PECS and different sentence structures. While the book gives a good overview of the system, I think there is far too little concrete information for parents wishing to implement PECS in a home environment. I was disappointed that right when I thought the author would go into detail about a topic, he simply referred to another publication for more information.

If a parent is looking for real instruction on using PECS, I would recommend the instructional manual sold by Pyramid Educational Products. PECS is a very useful tool in gaining understanding and speech in autistic children. This book just isn't the best way to go about learning how to implement the program.