162 Emerging Treatments

Structured Teaching

Structured teaching involves setting up the environment to meet the individual’s needs by lending structure, organization, and predictability to the learning environment. This structure allows the individual to better understand expectations and supports child independence. One well-known program that uses structured teaching is TEACCH, which was developed at the University of North Carolina.

Picture Exchange Communication Systems (PECS)

PECS is designed to improve a individual’s communication through pictures. A picture is used to represent language or a concept, and the individual gives the picture card to the caregiver to communicate. As the individual learns the process, additional cards are added to express more complex thoughts. PECS (Bondy & Frost, 1994) is a specific version of this type of system. Once the individual understands communication is effective, it is often possible to encourage verbal or other communication and to fade out pictures.