Acquisition

1
Acquisition Generalization of PECS Behaviors
in Children With Autism

• By Laurie S. Hanley
• Faculty Advisor
• Dr. Ann Beck

2
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

• Diagnostic Features
• Characteristics
• Incidence
• Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

3
Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)

• Developed by Andy Bondy and Lori Frost
• Purpose
• Initiate communication for a concrete outcome in
  a social context
• Give a picture of a desired object to a
  communication partner in exchange for the object
• Characteristics
• Teaches requesting
• Tangible outcomes
• Initiation of communication
• Social context
• No verbal prompts
• Does not require prerequisite skills

4
PECS Phases

• This study focused on Phases 1 3
• Phase 1
• Teaching the physical exchange
• Phase 2
• Distance and Persistence
• Phase 3
• Discrimination
• Phases 4 6
• Building sentence structure, Responding to
  questions, Commenting

5
PECS Literature

• Bondy and Frost (1994)
• Rapid acquisition of PECS behaviors
• Co-development of speech
• Other Literature
• Bondy Frost (1993) Lima, Peru
• Daly Bondy (Bondy and Frost, 2001)
• Schwartz, Garfinkle, Bauer (1998)
• Liddle (2001)
• Adkins Axelrod (2002)
• Charlop-Christy, Carpenter, Le, LeBlanc, Kellet
  (2002)
• Empirically-based studies
• Need for continued study

6
Research Questions

• 1.) Does the use of PECS generalize
• to untrained settings?
• 2.) Does the use of PECS transition
• across untrained communication
• partners?
• Additional question of interest
• Does the use of PECS result in increases in
  spoken language?

7
Method

• Participants
• 4 children with autism ages 7 9 years male
  absence of functional communication
• Materials
• Items Reinforcement Inventory
• Pictures and binders
• Score sheets, observation forms, and procedural
  fidelity checklists
• Design
• Single-subject with multiple baselines across
  participants

8
Method

• Independent Variable PECS Program
• Dependent Variables
• Acquisition and generalization of PECS behaviors
• Verbalizations
• Coding of verbalizations
• 1. Spontaneous or prompted
• 2. Intelligible or Unintelligible
• Procedure
• Baseline
• Intervention 30 trials per day 3 days per week
  for 6 weeks
• Generalization Probes twice a week in both
  school and home settings

9
Reliability

• Dependent Variables
• Acquisition of PECS behaviors 94
• Generalization of PECS behaviors 97
• Verbalizations (spontaneous or prompted)
• Baseline and Intervention 75
• Generalization 89
• Independent Variable
• PECS Program 100 agreement

10
Acquisition of PECS Behaviors
11
Results

• Acquisition of PECS Behaviors
• All participants rapidly acquired PECS behaviors
  (6 weeks)
• Generalization of PECS Behaviors Across Settings
• All participants generalized PECS behaviors to
  both home and school settings
• Generalization of PECS Behaviors Across Partners
• All participants generalized across communication
  partners

12
Generalization of PECS Behaviors Across Settings
and Partners

• Settings ( of exchanges)
• -Home -School
• Travis 53 26
• Rick 13 19
• Ryan 34 11
• Ethan 15 11
• Partners
• -Home -School
• Travis 4 times, 1CP 2 times, 2 CPs
• Rick 4 times, 1 CP 2 times, 2 CPs
• Ryan 0 2 times, 1 CP
• Ethan 0 5 times, 1 CP

13
Results

• Verbalizations
• Baseline and Intervention Sessions
• All participants increased the number of
  verbalizations
• All participants increased the spontaneity of
  verbalizations
• 3 of the 4 participants increased the
  intelligibility of verbalizations
• Generalization Probes
• All participants produced a minimal number of
  verbalizations

14
Verbalizations Produced during Baseline and
Intervention (Rick)
15
Clinical Implications and Directions for Future
Study

• Limitations
• Structured Environment
• Peer interactions
• Differences between talkers and non-talkers