title: The effects of PECS teaching to Phase III on the communicative interactions between children with autism and their teachers.
abstract: The study investigated the impact of mastery of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) to Phase III, on the communications of children with autism. Children aged between 3 and 7 years, formed a PECS intervention group and a non-intervention control group. The intervention group received 15 h of PECS teaching over 5 weeks. Three 2-h classroom observations recorded communications between the children and their teachers. These occurred: 6 weeks before teaching; during the week immediately prior to teaching; during the week immediately following teaching. For the control group, two 2-h observations were separated by a 5-week interval without PECS teaching. Communicative initiations and dyadic interactions increased significantly between the children and teachers in the PECS group but not for the control group.
authors.affiliation: Welsh Centre for Learning Disabilities, Division of Psychology, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Neuadd Meirionnydd, Heath Park, Cardiff, CF14 4YS, S Wales, UK. debcarr60@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Carr
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Felce
mesh_terms: D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004519:Education, Special / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D013663:Teaching; D014852:Wales