PECS^® is the evidence-supported “Picture Exchange Communication System^®” developed by Andy Bondy, PhD and Lori Frost, MS, CCC-SLP in 1985, in the ΗΠΑ, as a tool for teaching functional communication.

Initially, it was applied to preschool students diagnosed with autism and since then it has been used worldwide by people of all ages with a variety of difficulties, cognitive, motor, communication, both as an alternative and as an augmentative communication system.

PECS^® as a “visually-based expressive communication system for people with limited functional communication” is taught throughout a defined teaching protocol, based on the broader field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and the book “Verbal Behavior” by B.F. Skinner. It includes specific prompting and reinforcement techniques aiming at independent communication, provides systematic error correction procedures and lacks verbal aids to promote direct user initiative.

The PECS^® teaching protocol consists of six (6) phases.
In Phase Ι, the learner is taught to exchange the image of a desired object or activity with the “communicative partner”, who directly satisfies the request by providing it.
In Phases ΙΙ, ΙΙΙ & IV, the user of the PECS^® Communication Book is being trained in distance and persistence, simple and conditional discrimination and sentence structure.
In the more advanced Phases (Descriptive Vocabulary, Phases V & VI), the PECS^® user is taught to use adjective modifiers, to answer questions and to comment.

References

Frost, L., & Bondy, A. (2013). Σύστημα Επικοινωνίας Μέσω Ανταλλαγής Εικόνων PECS – Εγχειρίδιο Κατάρτισης (2η εκδ.). PECS HELLAS.
Pyramid και PECS, Σύστημα Επικοινωνίας Μέσω Ανταλλαγής Εικόνων PECS^®. Pyramid Educational Consultants Hellas. (2021, August 31). Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://pecs-greece.com/συχνές-ερωτήσεις/pyramid-kai-pecs/#s2
Σύστημα Επικοινωνίας Μέσω Ανταλλαγής Εικόνων PECS^®, Τι Είναι Το PECS^®;. Pyramid Educational Consultants Hellas. (2021, August 31). Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://pecs-greece.com/συστημα-επικοινωνιας-μεσω-ανταλλαγη/