Chee Wan Ching, Group B

Case Study 1

(i) the intervention

As Annie have speech impairment and communication difficulties which led to some behavioral and social problems, interventions to improve Annie’s communication skills will help in her social interaction. One of the possible interventions will be the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). This system provides children with functional communication skills and provides a bridge to speech acquisition (Bondy & Frost, 1994 as cited in Garfinkle and Schwartz , 1998). In Picture Exchange Communication System, children are taught to request multiple items with many communicative partners in different settings and are also taught to be persistent in their communication. According to Bondy and Frost (1996), there are four stages in PECS. The first stage is basic exchange where child picks a symbol card and hand it to the adult. The second stage is distance and persistence. In this stage, the child will pick up the symbol card and walk a distance to hand it to the adult and persist to exchange despite ignoring by the adult. The third stage is discrimination. The child will select the symbol card from a range and select the item he or she requested from an array of items. The fourth stage is sentence building. The child in this stage selects preferred symbol from book, adds it to "I want" symbol, and exchanges the sentence strip with the adult. Garfinkle and Schwartz (1994) came out with the fifth stage which is PECS with peers. In this stage, the child requests item from peers using symbol card.
Since Annie’s academic performance is within the normal range of a 6 year old child, I feel that Annie can start with stage four as her ability to interpret the symbol card is higher. This will also help her to improve her communication skills faster.

(ii) its effectiveness

In the journal article, 31 children of different disabilities, mainly children with autism, participated in the learning of PECS with adults and peers in their preschool classroom. Overall, results showed that the children took from a range of 3 to 28 months before they could use PECS for sentence building and making request from peers which is the last two stages. This showed that PECS is applicable and beneficial for children with communication difficulties as they could progress from having no or limited communication skills to using PECS to communicate for needs.

(iii) your personal evaluation how the child will benefit from this intervention

I feel that PECS will provide opportunities for Annie to learn to communicate effectively with peers and teachers as the symbols cards can aid her in expressing her needs and wants. I thought that teachers can also modify the PECS and include emotions symbol cards in the book. Hence, if Annie is unhappy, she can use picture exchange to express her feelings so that her classmate could see it and will stop teasing her. This will reduce behavioral problems such as biting and increase social interaction with her peers. It will also aid Annie to communicate when she is shy and withdrawn. According to Breitfelder (2008), a research study showed that PECS aid in the emergence of speech and gain in social communicative behavior which will decrease challenging behavior. Therefore, Annie might also gradually pick up verbal language and used speech for communication eventually.

(iv) your suggestions how you can make adjustments to cater to the needs of the child and to facilitate integration of the child / the intervention activity into your classroom.

Using differentiated instructions to cater to the different needs of the children, I thought that instead of using verbal language to communicate with Annie, I will allow her to use other communication methods such as picture exchange to express her thoughts. Also, I will give her more time and ask her to sit beside me when doing her work. I feel that it will be good if sometimes, I provide the other children with opportunities to communicate using picture exchange communication system so that they can experience the intervention strategies as well.

Besides that, I think that it is important to let the other children know and be aware about the disability that Annie is having and the challenges she will face. This will teach the children to be more accepting towards diversity. This is supported by Lim and Quah (2004) who said that it is crucial for teachers to have open communication with all the students as this creates a positive environment for acceptance of individual differences. I will also educate the children that it is not right to tease and laugh at their friend. In contrast, they should be sensitive and offer their help to their friend in class when necessary.

References:

Breitfelder, L. (2008, May). Quick and Easy Adaptations and Accommodations for Early Childhood Students. Teaching Exceptional Children Plus, 4(5), 1-15. Retrieved September 9, 2009, from Education Research Complete database.

Schwartz, I., & Garfinkle, A. (1998, Fall98). The Picture Exchange Communication System: Communicative Outcomes for Young Children with... Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 18(3), 144. Retrieved September 9, 2009, from Education Research Complete database.

Lim, L ., & Quah, M. M. (2004). Educating Learners with Diverse Abilities. Singapore: McGraw Hill.