The Phases of the PECS Protocol
Before phase 1 of PECS begins, it is important to consider the reinforcements that are meaningful to a child, in other words, what are things that a child wants and would increase their motivation to communicate. As a parent you would want to provide professionals with ideas of your child's favorite toys, games and activities.
Phase 1: How to Communicate
During this phase your child will learn how to communicate without verbal speech. The focus in this phase is on what the child does physically:
Phase 2: Distance and Persistence
The focus of this phase is teaching children to be persistent in getting their message across despite struggles that may occur.
Another goal of this phase is to show children that their symbols will not always be ready for them when they need them. To teach this lesson, children are put in situations where they put get their pictures on their own and eventually without help from their partners.
Phase 3: Discrimination between Symbols
Children must learn how to be specific with their requests. This lesson often begins by showing children two objects, one they enjoy a lot and one they dislike. If they choose the symbol of the object they dislike they are given the object. When they realize they have made a mistake and react poorly, the professional will take them through the following steps to make the right choice:
Phase 4: Using Phrases
To begin using phrases children are taught sentence starters such as "I want" When teaching this skill a strip provided for children to build their messages and exchange with a partner.
Phase 5: Answering a Direct Question
Children in this phase learn how to answer the common question, "What do you want?"
The goal is to develop this skill to a point where a child can create an answer without help from a partner.
Phase 6: Commenting
This phase of PECS is different for children because they no longer receive an item based on their message. It is now important to provide responses that would occur naturally for example if a child says "I see ball," a partner would not give the ball to the child but say something like, "Yes, I see the ball too, or Yes, that is a blue ball."
It is also important to make sure children understand and are able to answer different questions correctly. For example, if you ask "What do you want? and the child creates a message using "I see...," they may not understand the questions completely.
Phase 1: How to Communicate
During this phase your child will learn how to communicate without verbal speech. The focus in this phase is on what the child does physically:
- Pick up the picture of a desired item
- Reach to a partner
- Put the picture in a partner's hand
- When given the picture the partner gives the item, for example a crayon, to the child and says the name aloud
Phase 2: Distance and Persistence
The focus of this phase is teaching children to be persistent in getting their message across despite struggles that may occur.
Another goal of this phase is to show children that their symbols will not always be ready for them when they need them. To teach this lesson, children are put in situations where they put get their pictures on their own and eventually without help from their partners.
Phase 3: Discrimination between Symbols
Children must learn how to be specific with their requests. This lesson often begins by showing children two objects, one they enjoy a lot and one they dislike. If they choose the symbol of the object they dislike they are given the object. When they realize they have made a mistake and react poorly, the professional will take them through the following steps to make the right choice:
- Cueing (pointing to, or tapping) the correct choice
- Encouraging the new choice but not giving the selected item
- Switch to a known skills
- Repeat the choice using the correct picture
Phase 4: Using Phrases
To begin using phrases children are taught sentence starters such as "I want" When teaching this skill a strip provided for children to build their messages and exchange with a partner.
Phase 5: Answering a Direct Question
Children in this phase learn how to answer the common question, "What do you want?"
The goal is to develop this skill to a point where a child can create an answer without help from a partner.
Phase 6: Commenting
This phase of PECS is different for children because they no longer receive an item based on their message. It is now important to provide responses that would occur naturally for example if a child says "I see ball," a partner would not give the ball to the child but say something like, "Yes, I see the ball too, or Yes, that is a blue ball."
It is also important to make sure children understand and are able to answer different questions correctly. For example, if you ask "What do you want? and the child creates a message using "I see...," they may not understand the questions completely.