The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is an alternative augmentative communication system that uses a variety of behavioural techniques to teach nonspeaking individuals functional communication skills. Ten empirical evaluations of PECS have been reported in the literature since it was developed, many of which have considerable weaknesses such as lack of a baseline assessment of using PECS, lack of relevant discrimination skills of the participants, and a lack of treatment integrity measures. The purpose of this study was to provide further empirical data regarding the efficacy of PECS with adults with severe intellectual disabilities. During initial baseline assessments of three participants, all three demonstrated some of the skills required for PECS (e.g., removing a picture from a binder and giving it to the experimenter). However, none of the participants were able to reliably select the food item that corresponded to the picture they had selected. Therefore, training for this skill was provided in a modified multiple-baseline design across participants. Participants 1 and 2 met mastery criterion after considerable training using individualized fading programs. Participant 3 showed an overall improvement across baseline assessments and therefore training was not implemented. Correspondence between picture and subsequent item selection is an important component of PECS and results of this study suggest that this skill may require extensive training for some persons with severe intellectual disabilities. Baseline discrimination skills that could significantly impact learning efficiency and future research are discussed.

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is an alternative augmentative communication system that uses a variety of behavioural techniques to teach nonspeaking individuals functional communication skills. Ten empirical evaluations of PECS have been reported in the literature since it was developed, many of which have considerable weaknesses such as lack of a baseline assessment of using PECS, lack of relevant discrimination skills of the participants, and a lack of treatment integrity measures. The purpose of this study was to provide further empirical data regarding the efficacy of PECS with adults with severe intellectual disabilities. During initial baseline assessments of three participants, all three demonstrated some of the skills required for PECS (e.g., removing a picture from a binder and giving it to the experimenter). However, none of the participants were able to reliably select the food item that corresponded to the picture they had selected. Therefore, training for this skill was provided in a modified multiple-baseline design across participants. Participants 1 and 2 met mastery criterion after considerable training using individualized fading programs. Participant 3 showed an overall improvement across baseline assessments and therefore training was not implemented. Correspondence between picture and subsequent item selection is an important component of PECS and results of this study suggest that this skill may require extensive training for some persons with severe intellectual disabilities. Baseline discrimination skills that could significantly impact learning efficiency and future research are discussed.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka användningen av det alternativa kommunikationsverktyget PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System), som är vanligt förekommande hos personer inom autismspektrumtillstånd (ASD). Hos människor inom ASD är det vanligt med kommunikationssvårigheter samt utpräglade beteendeproblem. Genom intervjuer med skola, habilitering och boende har PECS studerats utifrån olika aspekter. Hur går inlärningen till? Hur används verktyget i det dagliga livet? Vilka för- och nackdelar upplevs vid arbete med PECS? Resultatet visar att PECS är ett kommunikationsverktyg med hög evidens men att det finns delade åsikter kring vissa delar. Studien pekar på betydelsen av kunskap och förståelse för att barn inom ASD behöver ges möjlighet att utveckla en fungerande kommunikation och att kommunikationsverktyget PECS kan bidra till detta.

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is an augmentative and alternative communication program (Frost & Bondy, 2002). Although PECS has been effectively used to teach functional requesting skills for children with autism, mental retardation, visual impairment, and physical disabilities (e.g., Anderson, Moore, & Bourne, 2007; Chambers & Rehfeldt, 2003), there are limited studies examining the effectiveness of PECS to teach requesting skills for children with multiple disabilities including visual impairment (Lund & Troha, 2008).This study explored the effectiveness of combining tangible symbols and other adaptations with PECS to teach requesting skills to students with multiple disabilities. Specifically, the participants were four students with multiple disabilities including visual impairment who also had many challenges in communication skills. The research design was the multiple probe design across subjects, a variation of a multiple baseline design. A notable benefit to this design is that there was no need to collect continuous recordings of baseline measures, because a strong a priori assumption of stability and the possibility of causing strong participant reactions existed before introducing the intervention. Instead, the researcher made periodic recordings of baseline levels to insure no significant changes have occurred before introducing the intervention.The study included four parts: (a) the assessment of reinforcers, (b) baseline, (c) the implementation of the intervention, which was teaching the three PECS phases and conducting generalization sessions, and (d) the maintenance condition. Three important research questions were posed:1. Can students with multiple disabilities including visual impairment learn to make requests for preferred items using adapted PECS materials and procedures?2. Can students with multiple disabilities including visual impairment generalize requesting skills for preferred items using adapted PECS from training rooms to classrooms?3. Can students with multiple disabilities including visual impairment maintain requesting skills after training?The results indicated that all four participants learned requesting skills using adapted PECS, generalized the newly acquired skills to their classrooms, and maintained the requesting skills after training. Results of this study provided preliminary evidence that PECS with adaptations could be used effectively to teach requesting skills for students with multiple disabilities including visual impairment.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which PECS would generalise from the training setting to other familiar settings as a function of properties of the settings. It was predicted that PECS would generalise better to the setting where PECS use facilitated was by having the same communicative partners and items available. Three preschool children all with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) were trained to use the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) to a minimum proficiency level of Phase 3. The experiment employed an ABA single case design with multiple target measures, replicated across participants, acknowledging that observations in the first baseline would be zero. Transfer of PECS across settings varied for each participant. One participant generalised PECS to the facilitated environment more than the non-facilitated environment as predicted. Another participant transferred PECS better to the non-facilitated environment compared to the facilitated environment contrary to the research prediction. The final participant did not generalise PECS to either environment, switching to functional verbal communication instead.

No description available.

The iPad with the Proloquo2Go application has taken the world of autism by storm, and given individuals that do not have a voice, a voice. This study looks at the effectiveness of the iPad with the Proloquo2Go application to enhance the manding repertoire for children with autism. Participants included three children (2 girls and 1 boy) diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, or exhibiting characteristics of an autism spectrum disorder, between the ages of 3 and 5. A multiple probe design across participants was used to assess the effectiveness of the iPad. Methods included completing The Reinforcer Assessment for Individuals with Severe Disabilities (RAISD) with the parents and/or teachers of each participant and running a six stimuli preference assessment before implementing each Phase. Pretest probes were conducted before implementing Phases 1 through 4. These phases were comparable to Phases 1 through 4 of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) (Bondy & Frost, 1994). Results of this study support that children with autism can acquire the skills needed to mand using the iPad with the Proloquo2Go application with training comparable to that of the Picture Exchange Communication System (Bondy & Frost, 1994). In addition, vocal requesting increased for the participants during the training phases in comparison to pretest probes.

No description available.

No description available.

Artificial life modelling is an extensive subject to exert effort in one piece of work such as this work. For that reason this work is limited to keep the base line of modelling of human behavior. Presented work deal with a creation of an artificial agent whose human-like behavior is implemented according to the PECS reference model. Specification of the PECS reference model is implemented in Java to build a simulation of artificial human being in some environment. Modeled human being has been assigned to imitate human activities, react adequately to sensed events from the environment and change the environment to achieve its goals. Modeled human being is a behavior controled entity acting according to its current role.