Picture Communication Versus Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)

For families of children with diagnoses such as dyspraxia, apraxia, autism, Down syndrome, or auditory processing disorder, the use of pictures to assist with speech, language, and communication issues may be an excellent option to consider, but at the same time learning how to use pictures as well as the practicality of using them in day-to-day life can be very overwhelming.

There is a lot of confusion out there, even among educational professionals, as to what picture communication is. Basically, there is basic picture communication, which is just the simple general use of pictures to assist with communication, and then there is PECS, which is a $59.00 brand-name system from Pyramid Educational Systems that is much more structured. The PECS system is very intensive and specific, and work on the PECS system is usually 1:1 and follows a specific hierarchy of steps which requires exact setup by the therapist or parent and exact response by the individual learning the system. Many times people talk about PECS when they actually mean simple use of pictures or vice versa, which can be very confusing as well as misleading, as they are actually two very different things. As an educational professional, when recommending picture communication or PECS to a family, you should explain this difference to the family and discuss which option would be best for the child as well as the family. As a parent, you need to know the difference between these two strategies so that you can use what is going to work for the child as well as what is most practical for you, so that it is possible for you to follow through at home.

I believe that the PECS system is a great system for teaching picture communication, but know first hand that it can be extremely cumbersome to use at home in a real-life, everyday situation. A great suggestion might be to use PECS during therapy sessions and on off-therapy days follow through at home with a short PECS session, while at the same time filling the individual's environment at home with pictures which would provide more casual opportunity for vocabulary development and use of simple picture communication. This way the child gets brief, but regular daily instruction in the hierarchy of the PECS system while at the same time gets follow through at home with picture communication in a way that can fit into the daily life of a family in a practical way.