They Might Be Curly Giants!

Watch Mr Brown’s daughter, Faith, use the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) book to ’speak’, because that’s exactly what Ajab’s learning in school now (he’s in the same school as Faith), but as the use of the book is still relatively new to Ajab, certain aspects of the communication isn’t to his liking.

In order to request for something, in this case a snack item, the child is supposed to take the picture (out of two pictures; the other one usually shows a drink) of the item that he wants and give it to the caregiver or teacher. That was the initial stage. What Faith is doing in the picture is a slightly more advanced method where the use of an additional “I want” card is introduced in order to help the child learn sentence formation, and hopefully some speech patterns. Therefore the child points to the “I want” card and then the item that he wants. “I want” + bread, for example.

Ajab’s still resistant, as he always is, to using the new card. He still insists on using just the two-card method and many a times he’s refused to even touch the “I want” card. We’re still having problems getting him to change his mindset and accept the different, more advanced PECS method.

I guess Trin and I are luckier than Mr Brown because we get to witness Ajab using pictures to tell us what he wants in class every other day.

Talking in pictures from mrbrown on Vimeo.