As a teacher of autistic students, I often have parents ask me for advice in helping them to organize home life and community life for their autistic children. A large majority of these children are not verbal and rely on a Picture Exchange Communication System to help them communicate to those around them. My goal is to assist my parents in learning how to use these PECS systems with their children at home and in the community. I recently had a parent ask how she could use such a picture system to help her child make choices at home. I advised her that there were several steps and proceeded to list them for the parent.
1) The first step is to decided which PECS system that you will be using with your child. Most schools and autism centers use a Picture Exchange System called Board maker. The Autism centers will often times lend a copy of the Board maker program for use at home. I suggested that the parent use the Board maker PECS system as the child was already familiar with this system at school.
2) The second step is to decide what you are wanting to communicate as far as choices. The Mom stated that she wanted to help her child make choices about foods for mealtimes. She also wanted to help him in selecting leisure or play activities. She felt that allowing her child to make these choices , would lead to more independence for him.
3) The Mom then chose which pictures she wanted to incorporate for each choice board, both the food board and the leisure time board. I suggested that she start out with maybe three or four choices, as more than this might confuse her child. As he is a non reader, she must rely on pictures alone and they need to be precise and something he is familiar with on a daily basis. For his meal time she decided on his favorites which were pizza, spaghetti, chicken and tacos. She stated that it is her goal to allow him to pick the evening meal on at least two to three evenings a week. He already loves to help in the kitchen, so this will give him a chance to feel independent by choosing which meals he helps to prepare. As a heading for the choice board, we chose the typical PECS symbol picture on board maker for Choice. Just by typing in the word choice, the picture comes up, which is basically a hand pointing to several different size rectangular shapes. However most autistic children use this symbol for choice at school, so her child should be familiar with it. We then placed the choice picture at the top of the choice board, and placed the four food choices below. Mom’s goal is to place this board on her fridge so her child can use it on his meal choice days. I encouraged her to extend this choice board later to another one for snack time choices. We then proceeded to use the same Choice picture for his leisure board, and looked up on board maker for pictures of his favorite activities. WE also limited this to four choices. She stated he loves to watch TV, play the computer, play Nintendo and do his puzzles. So these four choice activities were placed on the choice board. This way, rather than meandering around the house, he will have a say in what his activity is for his leisure time.
4) Mom was encouraged to introduce the choice board for snacks and leisure when her child is the most relaxed and receptive to the introduction of the PECS system for these activities at home. I advised that it would take practice but after a few days, it would run very smoothly.
Mom initiated these two choice boards several weeks ago, and since has reported that things are running a lot smoother at home. By allowing her child to choice home activities, he is calmer and there is less reason for disruptive behaviors. After he is familiar with these choice boards, we are going to discuss how she can incorporate the choice boards and the PECS system into other areas of his life.
Reference:
- Experience
