Pyramid Consultant Jesseca Collins, BCBA, M.Ed., shares some tips and tricks collected from Pyramid consultants across the years to give you ideas for storing pictures, crafting homemade communication books, and more!

Do you dream of pictures, find pictures in your laundry machine, or feel like they are taking over your home or classroom?  Using picture-based communication modalities and/or visuals in your learning environment can lead to picture overload!  There are always more pictures to prepare as our learner’s vocabulary grows or we teach varied communication skills.  Not every picture used in your classroom or home will be used for PECS as we use pictures for various lessons and reasons.  Below you will find a variety of tips and tricks we have acquired over the years during our training and consultation.  We are excited to share creative solutions observed in the homes, schools, communities, and other environments across the globe where we have the opportunity to work.   

Creation of Communication Books 

If your learner is a PECS user, they will need a communication book.  The communication books designed by Pyramid are durable and made from poly-vinyl plastic, but if the purchase of a communication book is not in your budget, fear not! Many individuals around the world have been creative in making “homemade” communication books.  Some individualization can be functional or make the book feel personalized for the learner.  One high school learner I worked with loved heavy metal music and his mom bought him a black leather studded guitar strap to go with his black communication book!                                          

Communication Book Materials Ideas: binders, folders, picture albums, spiral bound (Photo credit: Tammi Simper), duct tape (they make a variety of colors and patterns), kickboard for pool (Photo credit: Kelly Andal) 

Pages Materials Ideas: felt (Photo credit: Jackie Dorney, Sussex Consortium), sheet protectors, thin plastic cutting boards (Photo credit: Jen Quinlan-Bangild), plastic binder dividers, laminated paper 

Strap Materials Ideas: purse straps, guitar straps, luggage straps, wristlets, keychain lanyards, neck tie fabric, thick ribbon 

 

                           

 

Communication Book Accessibility  

Remember we also want you to have a “home” for your learner’s AAC system.  This should be accessible to the learner and not inside a cabinet or on top of a shelf.  This is a location where the communication system will reliably be found if the learner is not carrying or using it where they are in that moment. There may be more than one “home” for the communication system, for example learners may have one place on the playground and one in their classroom, or one on the first floor of their house and one in their bedroom upstairs.   

Material Ideas for PECS Book Home:  

  • Stick hooks on the wall or book shelf  
  • Portable handbag hooks 
  • Tape or paper on desk to indicate where to keep it when not in use 
  • Open basket   

     

Picture Preparation and Storage:

It can be daunting to decide which pictures you need to create to help you get started with PECS.  Pictures can also be used in our learning environments for picture direction following, visual schedules, prompts, visual reinforcement systems and more!  The creation and addition of pictures will be an individualized process and will differ based on a learner’s interests, community and culture, classroom, vocational, or home schedule.  

 Other Tips for Picture Preparation: 

  • Make extra pictures from the start, having multiples makes it easy to grab a new one if needed 
  • Put learners initials on the back of the cards so you know who they belong to if misplaced 
  • Prepare some blank laminated cards for when you are in a pinch, you can draw quickly on them to create a needed picture with a dry erase marker 
  • Put a small dab of glue onto the back of the picture when you put them onto the laminating sheet so they do not slip or move when going through the laminator 
  • If the Velcro is too “fresh” you can rub a pen cap on the hard Velcro to soften it a bit and make the picture easier to pull off  
  • If you want to make your shiny laminate “lower glare” for a learner you can rub some fine grain sandpaper on the picture to take away the sheen  
  • Put both Velcro types on the back of each picture and they will stick to any book! 

Alternate Materials for Picture Preparation: 

  • Packing tape can be used while waiting for pictures/icons to be laminated; it can also be used to fix pictures and as an extra layer to create water resistant pictures/icons 
  • If card stock isn’t available, cardboard such as cereal boxes can be used to reinforce pictures 
  • Pictures can be made on non-tear paper or made to glow in the dark (Photo Credit: Gabriela Castillon) 

Organizational Picture Management: 

  • Have a picture ‘lost and found’ in your learning environment where found pictures can be placed and recovered 
  • Share pictures! Have a board in a staff room or communal area where teachers can share extra pictures.  
  • Create a shared drive where staff can upload pictures they have created so others can open and print without having to remake the same set of pictures.   

(Photo Credit: “PECS Lost and Found” board at Herbin Metz Education Center in Greensboro, NC) 

Organization of Pictures and Book Accessibility:  

Once you have pictures made a common question is, “How do we store them?”  There is not one right way, and we recommend a system that is manageable for your classroom or home.   

Picture Storage Ideas: 

  • Over the door shoe holders 
  • Pocket charts 
  • Binders 
  • Bead/screw containers  
  • Binders and sheet protectors 
  • Photo storage boxes 
  • Plastic sandwich bags 

(Photo Credit: Sussex Consortium, Lewes, DE)     

We hope this gives you some ideas to get you started or helps you maintain pictures and/or implementation of PECS in your classroom or home.  You can learn more about picture modification by reading our blogs How to Modify PECS Pictures for Access and Success – Tips from an Occupational Therapist and PECS for Individuals with Vision Impairments.

We have a wonderful, collaborative support group on Facebook called PECS User Support that is available to ask questions, browse resources, or share ideas! Thanks to our Facebook group members who shared their helpful PECS hacks and tips!

Additional Support 

Ready to start PECS? Visit our training schedule! Register for a PECS Level 1 Training so you can see first-hand the 6-phase protocol backed by research. 

For ongoing support with communication skills, AAC implementation, the PECS protocol, and the Pyramid Approach, join our online community on Facebook. Search “PECS User Support” on Facebook and request to join. This active group of over 39,000 professionals, parents, and caregivers is monitored by our Pyramid Consultants from around the globe daily! 

Written By Jesseca Collins, M.Ed, BCBA

© Pyramid Educational Consultants, LLC. 2024