Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) Implementation Program for children with autism spectrum disorder

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate a program for implementing of the PECS in children with non-verbal ASD or with minimal verbalization in a school clinic belonging to the Unified Health System - SUS. METHODS: This is a longitudinal study. The sample consisted of 22 children with nonverbal ASD or with minimal verbalization; 17 boys and 5 girls, aged 6 to 12 years old. The program consisted of 24 sessions of individual speech language therapy with the presence of the family member and followed the six phases originally proposed by the PECS Training Manual. RESULTS: All children reached the first three phases. About 82% reached phase IV; 64% phase V and 19% phase VI. Family adherence was 96%. CONCLUSION: It was possible to test a PECS implementation program in 24 sessions and verify that children were able to achieve phases of discrimination and sentence construction, besides demonstrating gain in their lexical repertoire and reduction of non-adaptative behaviors.