Mands Across the Water: A Report on the Application of the Picture-Exchange Communication System in Peru

Abstract

We thank Liliana Mayo and Judith LeBlanc for their feedback on an earlier draft ofthis manuscript. We also express our gratitude to them for their efforts to bring us to Peru. Our appreciation is extended to the staff of the Ann Sullivan Center, especially for their efforts to integrate us into their "family." We thank the parents and the students of the Center for their warmth and generosity of spirit. Finally, we thank the Christina School District for their support of our efforts.

Synergistic Teamwork Using Social Media for Innovative Development of an Arabic Symbol Dictionary

“…The symbols or pictures may be used in an exchange of cards (PECS) (Bondy et al 1993) or by simply pointing at an image that may accompany a word, phrase or referent that best suits the user's needs. Systems can include the alphabet when the user is literate and have other abstract symbols to represent parts of speech, tenses and additional elements in speech.…”

Designing Interventions That Include Delayed Reinforcement: Implications of Recent Laboratory Research

“…Considerable research has identified the effectiveness of tokens, points, gold stars, and the like in achieving this purpose (Kazdin, 1982;Kazdin & Bootzin, 1972), yet the identification of less contrived, more naturally occurring conditioned reinforcers will be useful for ensuring generalization to other settings. Pictures of a desired object, edible item, or activity may serve a similarly useful purpose when presented during a delay, particularly if the pictures are being used concomitantly in a communication teaching program (e.g., Bondy & Frost, 1993). Conditioned reinforcers might also be verbal in nature (Hayes & Hayes, 1993).…”

“…Functional communication training (Carr & Durand, 1985;Durand & Carr, 1991) might serve as a means by which individuals can produce their own conditioned reinforcers as well. Teaching an individual to mand desired items using chosen pictures may allow the pictures to acquire conditioned reinforcing properties when the specified reinforcer is made available at the end of the delay (Bondy & Frost, 1993).…”

“…For some students, it will also be necessary to ensure that the photographs are functionally related to the activities they depict. For instance, communication training that uses pictures or photographs (e.g., Bondy & Frost, 1993) would be a natural context for establishing the relations among photos and activities that could subsequently enhance learning to follow an activity schedule.…”

Integrating Basic and Applied Research and the Utility of Lattal and Perone's Handbook of Research Methods in Human Operant Behavior

“…The cross-referencing of the terms gives rise to linkages that suggest areas of fruitful empirical study (e.g., relations among coding, tacting, and remembering), and other potentially productive linkages are implied (e.g., relations among equivalence, intraverbal behavior, and verbal learning; adduction, abstraction, productivity, and recombinatory generalization). Research ideas also may be derived from (a) recent theoretical discussions about the role of verbal behavior in stimulus class formation and other complex behaviors (e.g., Horne & Lowe, 1996;Stromer et al, 1996), (b) renewed interest in interventions that concentrate on the function of verbal behavior rather than its structure (e.g., Charlop-Christy & LeBlanc, 1999), and (c) the development of specialized language interventions and broad curricula based on Skinner's ideas (e.g., Bondy & Frost, 1993;Brady et al, 1994;Shafer, 1994;Sundberg & Partington, 1998).…”