PRACTITIONERS’ VIEWS OF USING THE PICTURE EXCHANGE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM FOR STUDENTS WITH AUTISM IN SAUDI ARABIA SCHOOLS

Abstract

One of the aspects of daily life that autism spectrum disorder affects is people’s social communication, but its impact can be lessened by using the Picture Exchange Communication System, which enhances autistic people’s communication skills. There has been a range of studies on the effectiveness of this method, but none have been carried out – prior to this one - on how practitioners in Saudi Arabia perceive it. For this research, 37 teachers and 20 therapists who employed the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) in their work with autistic students were canvassed online in Riyadh city. Through the deployment of rating scales, these practitioners were asked about their experience of this method; many of them stated that they were satisfied with using the system and thought using it at their school would benefit them. The practitioners reported that their students found PECS to be easy to use and that it was a great way to develop autistic children’s communication abilities, but the drawback to using PECS is a time-consuming strategy. Therefore, the finding of this study is that while the Picture Exchange Communication System can be beneficial to students with autism, it has its limitations. Its key strength was using a mixed-methods approach, whereas its main weakness was the small sample size of participants.