PECS Phase II

While sitting at their desk, a student pulls a pecs picture from their communication book and then looks around the room.

*This is an all too common scenario in special education classrooms and the biggest reason for ensuring that students have been taught Phase II of the Picture Exchange Communication System: Distance & Persistence. If student's do not learn and practice traveling to a communicative partner and waiting until they can make the exchange, they will never be able to effectively communicate their wants and needs (well they might, but by engaging in disruptive behaviors instead). Make sure to create opportunities for your students to travel with their pecs and remember to fade prompts as they begin to master the skill.


PECS Phase II

Importance of the Phases of PECS: Phase I

I am a huge advocate for the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). But it makes me sad and frustrated when I hear people criticize the effectiveness of the system. So I thought I would take a few minutes to introduce Phase I of PECS:

Video of Phase I of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)

Autism

Jenn W.

My name is Jennifer Widera. I am a teacher, a student, a mother, and a wife!

Communication

Talking. We do it every day, sometimes ALL day. We respond, we inform, we vent, we COMMUNICATE. It's just that simple. Or is it?

When you work with students that have developmental delays that have very little verbal skills, you begin to appreciate the complexity of communication. It may have come easily to us, but for my students the skills involved in communicating has to be explicitly taught.

Take a moment and think about what skills, no matter how small, would need to be taught in order for someone to learn to be a successful communicator?