In order to be successful with PECS teams not only have to know how to implement the protocol correctly, they have to be able to place communication training across each learner’s day. Here are some tips to help you and your learners succeed!

SETTING THE STAGE FOR SUCCESS
First, as with any skill, we need to provide the learner with ample opportunities to master it. In PECS, we have long noted that learners who are provided with 40-50 PECS opportunities per day generally go on to master that Phase. When learners are not making progress, often simply increasing our teaching to 40-50 opportunities across the day is what the learner needs to move forward. Remember, exchanging 40 times to eat a bowl of popcorn kernel by kernel with one teacher is 40 trials, NOT 40 opportunities! To have a new opportunity, we must change either who the learner is communicating to (the communication partner) what they are communicating for (the reinforcer) or where they are communicating (the setting or activity).

Secondly, we must implement communication training across the day to ensure generalisation of skills. There is no “generalisation fairy” who is going to come in the night and tell our learners that the picture exchange skill they learned to play with a favourite item at school applies when they want a grandparent to push them on the swings at the park. A big part of our job is to show our learners that communication works across the entire day, with anyone, for anything, in any setting! Ideally, good PECS teaching happens within structured lessons and during what we call, “stop, drop, and communicate” opportunities in during the learner’s day-to-day life.

USING THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOB
The team should have done a reinforcer assessment with every learner and be updating this regularly. Every learner should have a box with some of their reinforcers in, these should be rotated frequently to maintain the student’s interest. Parts of the student’s day can involve focused teaching during which they are working for items in the box. However, the most important opportunities occur in real-life, because that’s where we want the learner to be using their communication skills long-term! A good professional should be helping the team survey the day for routines, such as getting dressed, school arrival and dismissal, preparing meals and eating, watching television, and self-care such as bathing.

ENCOURAGING COMMUNICATION
Counterintuitively, we need to create challenges during these routines to teach our learners that communication, not contextually inappropriate behaviour, or helplessness, is the way to get many problems solved in life. For example, as I am helping a young learner get dressed, I might put on one sock and one shoe-but then put on the other shoe with NO sock and see if my learner expresses what I jokingly call an “Oh shoot!” moment. For an older learner who dresses him or herself, we would have taken all but one sock out of the drawer! If the learner notices something is not right, we commence our PECS lesson. We can put down a “sock” picture for a learner at Phase I. For a learner at Phase II, we came prepared with a “sock” picture to place on the cover of a PECS book across the room. For a learner at Phase IIIA, we put down a “sock” picture and a picture of a non-preferred or contextually irrelevant item such as a “shower cap” and so forth.  At breakfast, we may not give the learner a spoon when they are eating cereal. We may hide their coat or book bag when it is time to leave. When they arrive at school, the chair at their desk may be missing. Each of these opportunities should be carefully constructed to minimise frustration while increasing the communication skills of our learners.

We see it as part of a communication teacher’s job to help the team identify and know how to use these opportunities across the day. I like to help my team make lists of possible “Oh shoots” for routines and have these lists available throughout the classroom and home. Be explicit with the list-do not just say- “Don’t give needed items at snack time.” Instead say, “Put the snack in a container the student cannot open” (and have the container and pictures ready at the snack table!). We generally can come up with lists of five, or even ten or more ideas for a routine, and it is important to stress to the team, we do not expect them to do all five every day. We want them to pick one or two today, and then a different two or three tomorrow. Maybe the next day we do none, both due to our own busy schedule, and also as a time to allow the learner to practice the routine correctly.

When you are using this strategy, sometimes the learner will not notice there is a problem. I once made fairy cakes with a learner and did not have a spoon to stir the batter, he simply put his hand in to do it with no indication at all that he saw a problem with that! In those cases, I say, “Oops, my mistake” and provide the spoon. Then I will stop using that “Oh shoot” for a time, and maybe try it again later when the student has more baking experience. We do NOT advocate for “waiting the student out” as the lesson is not, “Ask for a spoon fifteen minutes later.” We also need to be prepared to start teaching quickly, before a student may start to engage in challenging behaviours.

PLANNING IT OUT
It is important that we plan for communication across the day. We will not provide enough teaching opportunities if we simply “try to remember” in a busy day. Take a look at our Support at Home page which provides ideas for many fun activities, each activity has an instructional video, lesson plans and free Pics for PECS picture grids for the learner to use. You may also find the PECS Data Forms useful.

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT
For further tips from Catherine Horton, Pyramid USA Clinical Director, take a look at the short article she wrote. To learn more about expanding communication opportunities across the day for your learner in greater detail, attend the PECS Level 2 Training! This two-day training focuses on creating lessons and activities to promote communication throughout the day. Beginning with a review of the Pyramid Approach to Education as it relates to PECS, we guide you in refining your PECS implementation and discuss current challenges you have experienced within the six phases. Prerequisite: PECS Level 1 Training.

For ongoing support with your PECS implementation, join our online community on Facebook. Search “PECS User Support” on Facebook and request to join. This active group of over 31,000 professionals, parents, and caregivers is monitored by our Pyramid Consultants from around the globe daily!

By Jaime Wedel, Pyramid Consultant

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