California law and regulation requires that regional centers display on their Web sites information about the dollar value of services they purchase for clients. These data (called "purchase of service" or "POS" data) must be reported separately by clients' ethnic/racial group, langauge and diagnosis.
PECS Basic Training
The PECS Basic Training is appropriate for any parent or professional working with learners with autism, related disabilities and/or limited communication skills. This two-day training begins with an overview of the Pyramid Approach to Education. This includes factors related to establishing an effective learning/communicative environment. Specific topics include functional activities, powerful reinforcers, functional communication, identification and replacement of Contextually Inappropriate Behaviors, generalization, lesson formats, teaching strategies, error correction and data collection/analysis.
The training then goes on to describe the six phases of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) protocol. PECS begins by teaching an individual to request desired items, by exchanging a picture with a communication partner. The system goes on to teach discrimination of pictures and sentence structure. In the more advanced phases, individuals are taught to use attributes, answer questions and comment. PECS is an evidence-based strategy, with supportive research from countries around the world.
Please visit their Web site at www.pecs.com for more information. Online registration is available. Alternately, you may register via phone at 888.732.7462.