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| Autism I |
| Thursday, November 29, 2001 |
| 1:00 PM–1:50 PM |
| Little Theatre Hall |
| Area: AUT |
| Chair: Jack Scott (Florida Atlantic University) |
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| The Alice Project: The First UK Pilot Project to Evaluate the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) |
| Domain: Applied Behavior Analysis |
| SUE BAKER (Pyramid Educational Consultants UK, Ltd.) |
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| Abstract: The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is an approach, based on principles from ABA, for developing early communication skills using pictures in a fundamentally different way from other picture-based systems. Following its introduction into the UK by the author in 1996, PECS is rapidly becoming established as a significant new initiative in the field of autism, with interest spreading from the UK into Europe and internationally. As in the USA, where PECS was first developed over 10 years ago, PECS in the UK is being successfully extended to a wide range of children with significant communication difficulties and also to older pupils and adults.
This paper will describe the first pilot project in UK to consider the effectiveness of PECS with a group of children with autism attending special schools or units in the south of England. Staff from one class in each of 8 schools received the initial 2-day PECS training workshop, followed by monthly consultancy support over a period of six months. The training and consultancy visits were conducted by 2 consultants from Pyramid Educational Consultants UK Ltd., under the supervision of Andy Bondy & Lori Frost, the co-developers of PECS in USA. The evaluation was independently co-ordinated by Patricia Howlin, Professor of Clinical Psychology, St. George’s Hospital, London, and questions investigated included:
- Does access to PECS result in enhanced communication skills in the children (i.e. an increased frequency of spontaneous communicative acts, by verbal or non-verbal means)?
- Does access to PECS result in behavioural changes in the children involved?
- Is PECS used across the day by teaching staff following attendance at a 2-day training workshop?
- What were the views of the teaching staff on the benefits of the training, the consultancy support, and the use of PECS with their students? |
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| Sundberg and Partington's Language Assessment as a Basis for Choice of Mode of Communication |
| Domain: Applied Behavior Analysis |
| SILJE HAUGLAND (Glenne Senter, Norway), Tone Kristenen (Glenne Senter, Norway) |
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| Abstract: The Behavioral Language Assessment (Sundberg and Partington 1998) was administered to 6 preschool children diagnosed with Autism who were enrolled in a Lovaas program. 4 out of 6 children had no vocal play or vocal imitation. Vocal communication was chosen as a mode of communication for all of these children. Outcome of treatment was compared to advice given in the manual "Teaching Language to Children with Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities." |
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