What is special needs education?

Special needs education supports children with developmental challenges by providing structured learning, therapy, and individualized support.

How do I know if my child needs therapy?

If your child has delayed speech, difficulty communicating, behavioral challenges, or learning difficulties, early assessment and therapy are recommended.

What services does Hope Kids provide?

Hope Kids provides speech therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, autism programs, and special education services in Phnom Penh.

What is speech therapy for children?

Speech therapy helps children improve communication, language, and speech development.

What is occupational therapy for children?

Occupational therapy helps children develop daily living skills such as eating, writing, and self-care.

What is physiotherapy for children?

Physiotherapy helps children improve movement, strength, and coordination.

What is autism and how is it treated?

Autism is a developmental condition that affects communication and behavior. Early intervention, structured programs, and therapy can help children improve skills.

What is the TEACCH program?

The TEACCH program is a structured teaching method designed to support children with autism using visual schedules and organized learning systems.

Are there autism workshops in Phnom Penh?

Yes, Hope Kids Center offers autism workshops and parent training programs in Phnom Penh.

Where can I find a special needs school in Phnom Penh?

Hope Kids Center provides special education and therapy services for children with developmental needs in Phnom Penh.

What is special needs education?

Special needs education supports children with developmental challenges by providing structured learning, therapy, and individualized support.

How do I know if my child needs therapy?

If your child has delayed speech, difficulty communicating, behavioral challenges, or learning difficulties, early assessment and therapy are recommended.

What services does Hope Kids provide?

Hope Kids provides speech therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, autism programs, and special education services in Phnom Penh.

What is speech therapy for children?

Speech therapy helps children improve communication, language, and speech development.

What is occupational therapy for children?

Occupational therapy helps children develop daily living skills such as eating, writing, and self-care.

What is physiotherapy for children?

Physiotherapy helps children improve movement, strength, and coordination.

What is autism and how is it treated?

Autism is a developmental condition that affects communication and behavior. Early intervention, structured programs, and therapy can help children improve skills.

What is the TEACCH program?

The TEACCH program is a structured teaching method designed to support children with autism using visual schedules and organized learning systems.

Are there autism workshops in Phnom Penh?

Yes, Hope Kids Center offers autism workshops and parent training programs in Phnom Penh.

Where can I find a special needs school in Phnom Penh?

Hope Kids Center provides special education and therapy services for children with developmental needs in Phnom Penh.

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)

Hope Kids provides affordable, inclusive, and professional education for children with autism and special needs in Phnom Penh and across Cambodia.

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)

Building Functional Communication Through Pictures and Visual Supports

At Hope Kids, the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is used as one form of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) to help children develop functional communication skills. PECS teaches children to communicate by exchanging pictures with a communication partner and gradually develops more advanced communication skills. The primary goal is not simply to teach a child to use pictures. It is to help the child become a more independent and effective communicator across everyday environments. PECS was developed by Andy Bondy, PhD, and Lori Frost, MS, CCC-SLP, and follows a structured six-phase teaching protocol.

Core Therapies

What Is PECS?

PECS stands for Picture Exchange Communication System. It is a structured AAC system that teaches individuals to communicate using pictures. It begins with a child learning to exchange a picture for something they want and gradually progresses toward more complex communication. PECS is designed to teach functional communication and communication initiation, rather than simply asking a child to point to pictures. Children may learn to: request preferred items or activities, make choices, communicate wants and needs, build simple sentences using pictures, answer questions, comment on objects, activities, and experiences, communicate with different people, and use communication more independently. PECS can be particularly useful for children who cannot yet rely consistently on spoken language.

Who Can Benefit From PECS?

PECS may be considered for children who have limited or emerging spoken language, are minimally speaking or nonspeaking, have difficulty communicating wants and needs, have Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC), have developmental delays, have intellectual or developmental disabilities, have significant expressive communication difficulties, or need additional support to communicate independently. PECS is not only for children with autism. The most appropriate communication system depends on the individual child's abilities, communication needs, preferences, environment, and goals. An assessment can help determine whether PECS or another AAC approach is appropriate.

Limited Spoken Language

Children with limited or emerging spoken language who need an alternative way to communicate.

Minimally Speaking

Children who are minimally speaking or nonspeaking and need a reliable communication method.

Autism Spectrum Condition

Children with ASC who may benefit from a structured visual communication system.

Developmental Delays

Children with developmental delays or intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Communication Difficulties

Children with significant expressive communication difficulties who need additional support.

Individual Assessment

Each child's needs are unique. An assessment helps determine whether PECS or another AAC approach is appropriate.

PECS and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

PECS is one type of AAC. AAC includes the different methods and tools people can use to communicate when speech alone is not sufficient. These may include: gestures, facial expressions, signs, pictures, communication books, speech-generating devices, written communication, and spoken language. AAC is often multimodal, meaning that a child may use several forms of communication depending on the situation. For example, a child might use speech for some messages, a gesture for another, and a picture or communication device when a message is more difficult to express. The purpose of AAC is to increase effective communication, not to prevent speech. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) recommends considering AAC as part of functional communication support and emphasizes that people should not be restricted to only one communication modality.

Why Is Functional Communication Important?

Communication allows children to participate in everyday life. When a child does not yet have a reliable way to communicate these messages, they may have difficulty participating in learning, play, routines, and relationships. Providing a functional communication system gives the child another way to make their message understood.

A child may need to communicate:
• "I want juice."
• "Help me."
• "More."
• "Finished."
• "I don't like that."
• "I want to play."
• "Look!"
• "Where is Mum?"
• "I need a break."
When a child does not yet have a reliable way to communicate these messages, they may have difficulty participating in learning, play, routines, and relationships. For some children, communication difficulties may also contribute to frustration when others do not understand what they are trying to communicate. Providing a functional communication system gives the child another way to make their message understood.

The Six Phases of PECS

PECS follows a structured six-phase protocol. Each phase builds specific communication skills.

Phase 1: How to Communicate

The child learns the basic exchange: Picture → Communication Partner → Desired Item or Activity. The child learns that giving a picture to another person can be an effective way to communicate.

Phase 2: Distance and Persistence

The child learns to use PECS across different situations, including traveling to a communication partner, retrieving the communication book or picture, communicating across increasing distances, persisting when communication is not immediately successful, and using the skill with different communication partners.

Phase 3: Picture Discrimination

The child learns to select between pictures. For example, the child may choose between pictures representing juice or cracker. The child learns that different pictures represent different choices and that selecting the appropriate picture communicates a specific message.

Phase 4: Sentence Structure

The child begins constructing simple picture-based sentences. For example: I want + juice. This phase introduces a more structured way of combining symbols to communicate.

Phase 5: Answering Questions

The child learns to respond to questions such as: "What do you want?" The focus is on developing more flexible communication rather than relying only on spontaneous requests.

Phase 6: Commenting

The child learns to communicate about things beyond requesting. This may include commenting on what they see, what they hear, what they are doing, what they like, and what is happening around them. This helps expand communication toward broader social interaction and language use.

Can PECS Support Speech Development?

This is one of the most common questions parents ask. Using AAC does not prevent a child from developing speech. Research on AAC more broadly indicates that AAC can support communication and may support spoken language development for some children. ASHA specifically notes that AAC does not hinder speech development. However, it is important not to promise that PECS will make a child speak. Research specifically examining PECS has found meaningful improvements in functional communication, while speech outcomes have been more variable. At Hope Kids, the goal is therefore not to replace speech with pictures or to use pictures only until speech develops. The goal is to make sure the child has a reliable way to communicate now, while continuing to support speech and language development when appropriate.

What Skills Can PECS Support?

PECS can support a wide range of communication and developmental skills across everyday environments.

Functional Communication

• Requesting
• Making choices
• Communicating wants and needs
• Asking for help
• Communicating "finished"
• Initiating communication

Language Development

• Building vocabulary
• Combining symbols
• Developing sentence structures
• Understanding relationships between words and concepts
• Expanding communication beyond basic requests

Social Communication

• Initiating interactions
• Communicating with different people
• Commenting
• Sharing interests
• Participating in social routines

Independence

• Communicating preferences
• Making choices
• Advocating for needs
• Participating in daily routines
• Communicating across different environments

Functional Communication

• Requesting
• Making choices
• Communicating wants and needs
• Asking for help
• Communicating "finished"
• Initiating communication

Language Development

• Building vocabulary
• Combining symbols
• Developing sentence structures
• Understanding relationships between words and concepts
• Expanding communication beyond basic requests

Independence

• Communicating preferences
• Making choices
• Advocating for needs
• Participating in daily routines
• Communicating across different environments

Social Communication

• Initiating interactions
• Communicating with different people
• Commenting
• Sharing interests
• Participating in social routines

How Hope Kids Delivers PECS Support

At Hope Kids, PECS instruction is adapted to the child's current abilities and communication goals. The focus may include requesting, choice-making, sentence development, commenting, or generalizing communication across environments.

Communication Assessment

We consider the child's current communication abilities, including how they currently communicate, whether they use spoken words, gestures or signs, existing pictures or symbols, communication with familiar and unfamiliar people, ability to initiate communication, ability to make choices, and current communication challenges. This helps determine whether PECS is appropriate and what communication goals should be prioritized.

Individualized PECS Program

PECS instruction is adapted to the child's current abilities and communication goals. The focus may include requesting, choice-making, sentence development, commenting, or generalizing communication across environments.

Structured Teaching

PECS uses a systematic teaching sequence rather than simply giving a child a set of picture cards. Children are taught specific communication behaviors progressively, with opportunities to practice and generalize skills.

Communication Across Environments

Where appropriate, PECS skills are practiced across therapy sessions, classroom activities, mealtimes, play, daily routines, home, and community environments. The aim is meaningful, functional communication.

Family Involvement

Parents and caregivers play an important role in helping children use communication skills throughout the day. Families can be supported to recognize communication attempts, provide meaningful communication opportunities, use pictures consistently, respond to communication attempts, encourage independent communication, and practice communication during everyday routines.

Ongoing Progress Monitoring

Communication goals are reviewed as the child develops. Progress may include looking at frequency of spontaneous communication, types of messages communicated, independence, ability to communicate with different people, generalization across environments, progress through PECS phases, and development of other communication modalities. The communication system can also be adjusted as the child's needs change.

PECS at Hope Kids: Professional Training

Hope Kids has team members with formal PECS training through Pyramid Educational Consultants. Ms. Ranjani Poobalan, Program Director, and Mrs. Mam Lay, Executive Director, and Ms. Um Sonita, Program Manager, has completed Level 1 and Level 2 PECS training through Pyramid Educational Consultants Australia. Pyramid Educational Consultants is the organization associated with the PECS program and provides formal PECS training and resources based on the PECS protocol.

What Does the Research Say About PECS?

Research supports PECS as a structured approach for developing functional communication, particularly for children with autism and other developmental disabilities. A systematic review of PECS studies found that children can acquire skills across the PECS phases, although the amount and rate of progress varies between individuals. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials also found significant improvements in communication skills among children with autism receiving PECS, while noting that effects can vary across outcomes and settings. The strongest and most consistent rationale for PECS is therefore functional communication: helping a child communicate effectively with other people in everyday situations.

Why Choose Hope Kids for PECS?

Hope Kids offers structured PECS support tailored to each child's communication abilities, goals, and everyday environments. Our approach emphasizes functional communication, family-centered support, and multidisciplinary collaboration.

Trained PECS Team

Our team includes professionals with formal PECS training through Pyramid Educational Consultants Australia.

Individualized Communication Support

PECS is introduced and taught according to each child's communication abilities and goals.

Functional Communication Focus

We focus on communication that the child can use meaningfully in everyday life, rather than simply teaching picture identification.

Multimodal Communication

PECS can be used alongside speech, gestures, signs, and other AAC systems when appropriate.

Family-Centered Support

Parents and caregivers are supported to help the child use communication skills across everyday routines and environments.

Multidisciplinary Collaboration

PECS can complement Speech & Language Therapy, Special Education, ABA, Structured Teaching, and Early Intervention when these services are appropriate for the child.

Frequently Asked Questions

PECS stands for Picture Exchange Communication System. It is a structured AAC system that teaches functional communication using pictures.

No. PECS may be appropriate for children with a range of developmental and communication needs. Whether PECS is suitable should be determined according to the individual child's communication profile and goals.

No. AAC does not prevent speech development. Some children who use AAC develop or increase spoken language, while others may continue to rely on AAC as an important part of their communication.

No. PECS and Speech & Language Therapy can work together. A speech-language professional may support speech, language, social communication, and AAC, while PECS provides a structured communication system that the child can use in everyday situations.

There is no single age at which PECS must begin. AAC can be considered when a child is having difficulty developing effective spoken communication. The appropriate system and level of support depend on the child's individual communication profile.

Not necessarily. PECS instruction is designed to teach the communication exchange progressively. The child's current abilities and needs should be considered when determining how to begin.

There is no fixed timeframe. Children progress at different rates depending on their communication abilities, learning profile, opportunities to practice, consistency across communication partners, and other individual factors.

Yes. Communication skills are most meaningful when children can use them across everyday environments. Parents can support PECS by creating natural opportunities for communication during meals, play, routines, outings, and other activities.

PECS does not need to be stopped simply because speech develops. The child's communication system can evolve. A child may use speech for some messages and PECS or another AAC system for others, depending on what is most effective in a particular situation.

Contact Hope Kids

If your child has difficulty communicating, Hope Kids can help you explore whether PECS or another AAC approach may be appropriate. Our goal is to give every child meaningful opportunities to communicate, make choices, express their needs, participate in learning, and connect with the people around them. Communication should not have to wait for speech.

Contact Hope Kids

Hope kids Special Education School We offer Special Education and Holistic Speech Delay. Intellectual Disabilities. Leaning Difficulty and Cerebral Palsy.