PECS

PECS stands for Picture Exchange Communication System. You will notice during therapy the therapist using small pictures with your child, those little pictures are PECS. IIDC Indiana-Communication-What is the PEC explains PECS. As your child goes through therapy the use of PECS will change to meet the needs of the child. It is a good idea to gather PECS to use at home. The best thing is to take digital photos of the things your child likes, uses, plays with, wears, etc. Get yourself some sticky back Velcro, make yourself a binder of PECS.

There is a software program that therapist and school teachers use to create these pictures, its called Boardmaker. Boardmaker is a product of Mayer Johnson. Some larger public libraries may have a copy of Boardmaker for checking out.

I have a large 3 ring binder about 2" thick that I keep all the PECS I have accumulated over the last 7 years in. Now that both my boys are verbal, the need for PECS have decreased. I still keep them on hand, I never know when I will need to pull out a PEC to use to help my youngest son quiet, to look, quiet hands, etc.

There are a bunch of great websites to obtain free PECS to print out/download.
Yahoo Group: Making PECS
Trainland Tripod-Pecs
Do 2 Learn-Free Area
Cyndi's Autistic Support
Wigit Resources-Symbols

You can create a picture schedule for your child to follow, persons with Autism like to keep to a routine and a picture schedule helps them to know what is coming next. This also will prepare them for any changes that may occur in their schedule. You will also want to create a choice board, sentence strip, and a task strip. These will all help your child communicate better, these are usually add into the PECS over time.