A Comparative Study Of The Effects Of PECS And SGD On Communication Behavior Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Many children with autism spectrum disorders have communication disorder of varying degrees.Communication disorders may cause such children to use aggressive and self-injurious behaviors to express their complex communication needs.The number of children diagnosed with autism is on the rise every year,so effective communication interventions for these children are particularly important.In order to meet the complex communication needs of autistic children and reduce their problem behaviors,some researchers have proposed to develop autistic children’s communication ability by using Augmentative and Alternative Communication(AAC),so that they can master the limitations of their own way of communication to express the basic needs.Picture Exchange Communication System(PECS)is a specially designed AAC for autistic children,aiming to enhance the functional communication ability of autistic children.With the development of the technology,Speech Generating Device(SGD)based on the i Pad application has come into being as a kind of high-tech AAC.This kind of high-tech AAC is often used in conjunction with the PECS teaching protocol(hereinafter referred to as the i Pad version of SGD),which is frequently used in foreign people with various communication difficulties.For the communication training of autistic children in China,most people still uses the traditional paper card version PECS(hereinafter referred to as the traditional PECS).What about the effectiveness of traditional PECS and i Pad versions of SGD in developing intentional speech production behavior in autistic children?A cross-participants multiple baseline design combined with alternating treatment design was implemented in this study,three children with autism who had limited communication ability were intervened with the traditional PECS and the i Pad version of SGD in order to improve their intentional speech production,the intervention effects of two kinds of communication aids were compared.The results showed that: under the condition of the i Pad version SGD and the traditional PECS,the results were mixed.Two of the three participants showed significant improvement in the level of intentional speech production,while the other had a small improvement in the level of intentional speech production.The same participants observed a small difference between the intervention effects of the two intervention tools(communication aids).For different participants,we should choose suitable communication aids to study according to their own ability,experience and actual preference so as to achieve the best effect of intervention.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)before and after the intervention,three participants showed preference for the i Pad version of SGD and the traditional PECS;(2)both the i Pad version of SGD and the traditional PECS are effective in developing the intentional speech production of autistic children;(3)the frequency of speech production is affected by the use of preferred communication aids;(4)the maintenance effect of the speech production frequency during the maintenance period will vary with the use of preferred communication aids.