Management of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder using Picture Exchange Communication System - A Pilot Study

Abstract

Aim: The aim of the study was to empirically assess the efficacy of Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) in 5 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study was also intended to report parental feedback on using PECS with their children.Method: Purposive convenient sampling was used for this quasi-experimental study. Five nonverbal children who were diagnosed with mild to moderate autism spectrum disorder with a median age of 4.1 years were selected for the study. All the five participants who exhibited limited or no functional communication skills were recruited for the study. Exclusion criteria included presence of any syndrome or any significant medical conditions such as seizures. The pre-assessment and the post assessments after 24 sessions of PECS training were done using selected communicative function domains. Post therapy parental feedback was obtained concerning five categories which are communication intent, attention, behavioural issues, vocalization and ease of communication. Also frequency of initiation as observed in home settings was obtained by interview method.Results: Current study shows that all the children were able to use PECS spontaneously and independently without any physical prompts. Children were able to generalize PECS at home with ease and were able to initiate communication on their own using the pictures. The mothers of the children reported that they observed a drastic subsidence in children’s challenging behaviours and also improvement in their attention span. The findings from our study showed that PECS training is effective in improving the socio-communication skills in children with ASD who had restricted communication. On analysing the report, mothers stated that they were able to easily incorporate PECS at home with their child as it implements the use of actual pictures for communicative exchange. As PECS training paves the way for expression of the child’s needs, there was also a significant reduction in the children’s behavioural problems such as tantrums and other self-injurious behaviours.Conclusion: From this study, it can be concluded that PECS training is effective in improving various communicative temptations in socio-communication skills in children with ASD who have restricted communication. It was also noted that obtaining parental feedback periodically would help in generalization and it encourages the parents’ involvement in the child’s learning process.