http://www.reachfamilyinstitute.org/2013/06/13/hope/

Check out thes ideas for elementary school age autistic children. Hope you find them useful!

http://info.speechtails.com/blog/bid/142460/Speech-Therapy-Ideas-for-Elementary-School-Autistic-Children?goback=%2Egde_88008_member_131455379

The Gold Award is designated for those who have brought to the marketplace products with value, purpose, class and longevity. These are products that go beyond what is expected of them and rise above with clarity and stability, adding a wow factor to the experience.

Only one winner in each category was selected by a panel of judges. Winners were selected based on their own merit, and not in competition with another. The one receiving the highest score in the category was then selected as the Gold Award Winner.

Among the Gold Award Winners was Take Your Pix® board book photo albums [boardbookalbums.com]. Take Your Pix® albums are rugged, durable and beautiful photo albums designed especially for infants and toddlers. 10 double sided pages tuck photos safely away and the books are made of a durable cardboard pages that allow little ones to turn them to their delight without harming the book or the photos within. As one of the judges stated at the Award judging, “Finally the little guys can enjoy family memories too!” These albums are a true gem and come in many styles and colors to please everyone. They make a perfect addition to the family albums and also make a great gift.

http://www.familyreviewcenter.com/reviews/display.php?display=2286

http://spoonful.com/summer#carousel-id=content-carousel&carousel-item=2

The new year has come and gone already, and that means that it’s time to gear up for the next major holiday – Valentine’s Day! And yes, we know that Christmas and New Year’s JUST finished, but when it comes to making a scrapbook, you need all the time you can get to make the best scrapbook you possibly can to give to that special someone for Valentine’s Day!

Usually, people give flowers and candy to their loved ones or take them out to a movie or a fancy dinner date on Valentine’s Day, which is all lovely and good, but man, it’s cliché. Why not do something a bit unconventional, something that will last forever, something that will say “I love you” or “You mean more to me than you could ever know”? Make a scrapbook for your sweetheart this Valentine’s Day!

Ahh, but where should you start? You’ve got a huge collection of pictures of the two of you, some paper, lots of markers and utensils, but no direction! What will you do?

That’s easy. First of all, be sure to have a Board Book album on hand. Don’t have one? Order one! It’s super easy to do; just go to our website at and order online or call us at 1-800-506-9683 to get your very own album! You have a nice selection of colors, and each album holds up to 20 4”x6” pictures, along with one 4”x5” photo for the front cover. The pages are sturdy and kid-friendly, too, in case any little ones get their hands on the photo album.

Now that you have the photo album, you need to pick the direction you want your scrapbook to go and just go with it. Make a plan of attack if you need to. You can simply make a Valentine’s scrapbook that features you and your love together at different times and different places throughout your relationship. Be sure to feature other fun things like ticket stubs to events you’ve attended together, rose petals from your first bouquet that you shared, cards, stories, letters you’ve written one another, and favorite song lists or lyrics in your scrapbook!

If you don’t mind that your significant other sees or knows what you’re making for him or her, ask that person to help you with the creative process! You can have input on which pictures and objects to use, and you can also get both sides of the story about a photo or a trip that you both took together. For example, if you include the first picture of you two together, he could mention how he fell head-over-heels in love with you the moment he laid eyes on you, and you could write how you thought he was charming and how he opened his card door for you, and so on!

If you want to make your surprise Valentine’s scrapbook specific, then why not showcase fun vacations or holidays that you and your honey have shared together? Be sure to include lots of pictures of the scenery and the two of you having fun together in your scrapbook! Provide captions underneath or to the sides of your photos and add cute embellishments of your photos.

Do you have kids and want to tell the story of how your parents, grandparents, or even your great-grandparents met and how deeply they fell in love and stayed in love? Well, why not make a scrapbook for that? If you have any pictures of your ancestors together in their youth (for example, a photo of your grandparents’ wedding), use them in a love-story album! Your whole family can see how their elders met and grew to be crazy about each other, and it would be a heartwarming story to read every single time, let alone a good way to remember their stories.

Be sure to get a head start on your album! Call us today at 1-800-506-9683 or visit our website at www.boardbookalbums.com to get started on your Valentine’s album right away!

The year 2011 is already ending right before our eyes! It seems that as soon as we get used to writing out 2011 on our checks, assignments, memos, and other important documents, the year ends and we must get used to writing 2012 instead!

Now 2011 is leaving us for good, and all that we’ll have from the year are our memories. Luckily, we have several means of preserving memories from times past – photos, social media, articles, and so much more! And while you COULD leave your photos and mementos unattended or shove them in a box only to languish in a closet for several years, why not put your preserved memories to good use and make a scrapbook out of them?

Many people enjoy making scrapbooks of their personal years past, and you can definitely do that! This is the time to go through all the photos you took this year or the photos that friends of yours have taken throughout the year and pick out the ones you want to use in your photo album! You can include shots of your friends and loved ones during the year, holidays you celebrated, fun days and nights out spent together, fun times out and in, pets, and anything else you think belongs in your photo album! You can also include any movie tickets, concert tickets, symphony tickets, sporting events stubs, and other mementos from any events you participated in with loved ones and friends over the year!

Our Board Book Album, which is thick, durable, and kid-friendly, holds up to 20 4”x6” photos, and it also includes a 4”x5” opening on the front cover for a photo. The pages are also durable enough that you can decorate your album pretty much however you like – with stickers, markers, scrapbooking material; just about anything you can think of will work!

And who says you have to just make a personal album? There certainly isn’t some rule that dictates what you have to do with your Board Book Album! You could even make an album about 2011 in general, highlighting the most important events that occurred in the year. Check out this link to for some ideas!

If you choose to do a 2011-in-review scrapbook, you can save newspaper clippings you might have acquired or you can print out stories and photos from the Internet to showcase the most important events of the year. Of course, if you have a personal memento to add from one of the many big events that happened this year, you can include them in your scrapbook, too. Were you at one of the many Occupy protests? Were you involved with one of the several earthquakes and severe storms around the world? Did you help clean up Joplin, Missouri after the deadly tornado struck in May? Be sure to include photos and mementos (if you have any) from those events and others, too!

If you’re ready to get started on your 2011 scrapbook, then don’t delay! Give us a call at 1-800-506-9683 or visit our website at www.boardbookalbums.com. Have fun making your new scrapbook, and have a Happy New Year!

There’s no doubt about it – December is a stressful month for many people. Many of us are inundated with long Christmas lists, crowded shopping, insane amounts of get-togethers, and nearly insurmountable numbers of family holiday parties that go with the last month of the year.

In spite of all the anxiety and pressure we adults tend to face this time of year, the month of December is one of the most beautiful months of the year – IF you look at it in a positive light. There’s nothing like the thrill of seeing the first untouched layer of snow, smelling warm baked Christmas cookies fresh out of the oven, and seeing your children’s eyes light up as you display your Christmas tree. In short, December, believe it or not, is chock full of memories that will last you a lifetime. All you have to do is take the time to look for them… AND take a picture of those memories.

And why simply take pictures? Resist the temptation to leave the photos you take inside your camera’s memory or shoved in a box somewhere in an upstairs closet. Put them to good use – make a winter-themed scrapbook with one (or two!) of our Take Your Pix Board Book photo albums!

Our blank albums are available in white, black, blue, and pink, so you can choose your album’s color on how you want to emphasize your winter album (white for snow, blue for the cold, etc.). These child-friendly, chunky board book style photo albums hold 20 4”x6” photos, so you have plenty of room for displaying your winter memories with your family!
Below are some ideas of what you can include in your winter scrapbook album!

-  Let your kids make their own gingerbread house by using graham crackers and frosting, hard candies, sprinkles, chocolates for decorating and for tasting. If you’d like to go the healthier route, you can use dried fruits, nuts, and seeds. Take pictures of the works in progress and of the final touches!

-  December is the time in which kids write letters to Santa Claus. You can either feature their letters in the albums or take pictures of them setting out their letter with the milk and cookies the night before Christmas. For added fun, you can even write your own letter to Santa, too, and feature it somewhere in your album.

-  One of the most beautiful things about winter is the snow. Be sure to photograph your kids, your spouse, your pets (and yourself, of course!) enjoying the snow. Make snow angels, take pictures of snowballs in flight, and capture snowmen on film after they’re created. For a cool effect in your album, convert your photos to black-and-white and use bold colors like a bright red, blue, or even green to accentuate the photos against the background.

-  You know what else happens in December? Christmas break. Be sure to capture the memories of relaxing with your family. Take pictures of the family sitting together on the couch in pj’s, watching favorite Christmas movies with one another. These can be the best pictures to look back on in the future years.

-  If you’re the artistic type and plan on sending out holiday greeting cards of your family, you can include your cards in the photo album as well!

-  Be sure to add photos of your family enjoying the holiday decorations and the tree as well! You can even include your favorite cold weather recipes for family meals and get-togethers, and, of course, a photo of everyone enjoying the recipe!

Ready to get started on your winter scrapbook? Then what are you waiting for? Call us today at 1-800-506-9683 or visit our website at www.boardbookalbums.com!

It's now December and the chilly autumnal wind has been permeating the air, sending the masses to seek shelter in their jackets, scarves, and gloves. Even though Thanksgiving has just been celebrated and many people around the country are preparing for the wintertime merriment of Christmastime, decorating their homes in red and green, penguins, Santa Claus figurines, Christmas trees, and polar bears. In addition to the decorations and lights, many people have Christmas picture frames filled with photos of Christmases past out on display for all to see.

While displaying a simple Christmas frame or two is nice in its own right, possessing and exhibiting several favorite, framed Christmas memories can take up quite a bit of space in the home. Instead of cluttering your home, why not simply display a whole Christmas album for all to see?

The best part is you don't even have to go spend a ton of money on scrapbook materials and albums to make your Christmas album look good. You can simply order one of our Take Your Pix Board Book photo albums and make a scrapbook or photo album of your own, filled with your favorite Christmas memories!

All you need to do is gather the photos of some of your favorite Christmas memories or print off any digital pictures of your favorite Christmas memories from your computer, Facebook account, or digital camera! It's as simple as that! You can order your photos in a chronological order from when you were a child to your current age to show those who look at your photo album your life through your Christmas memories.

Next, you just need to put your photos in one of our Take Your Pix Board Book photo albums! Order an album in your favorite color, and place your photos within the album! Our albums contain 20 pages that hold 4x6" photos, and the cover holds a 4x5" photo, so you'll have room to showcase 21 separate photos! Be sure to include pictures of you with your family, friends, and, if you have any, children!

After all of your photos are collected and placed inside the photo album, you have the option of decorating your album! The pages are thick and sturdy, making them perfect to decorate with markers, highlighters, stickers, scrapbooking material, and so much more! You can provide captions underneath each photo of your Christmas memory, which provides who is in the picture, when and where it was taken, and any other pertinent information you can recall.

And no worries, this photo album is completely kid-friendly. The pages are easy to turn and even have notches in them to facilitate page-turning even more. Their fortitude is equivalent to that of a typical children's book - thick, durable, and able to take all sorts of tough love from children.

Be sure to display your Christmas memory album during the holiday season, especially on Christmas day! After the Yuletide merriment has calmed down a bit on Christmas day and Christmas dinner has been eaten together, it would be the perfect time to break out your album for friends and family alike to look at and discuss. Loved ones will look back on Christmases past with fondness and warmth, and many stories of the past are bound to spring up to be relived and relished once more.

And children, while they don't have many memories or experiences of Christmases past, shouldn't feel left out of the whole magical process. Kids can use our Take Your Pix Board Book photo albums to showcase what Christmas means to them! They can even make our photo albums into a rockin' wish list for Christmas shopping, providing captions that include where one can find the potential gifts, the descriptions of the gifts, and, potentially, the price. It's always easy to shop with a visual aid so we know what to look for!

Are you ready to get started on your memory book or ultra wish list? Then give us a call here at Board Book Albums at 1-800-506-9683 or visit us at our website at www.boardbookalbums.com. Let this be the most memorable and enjoyable Christmas season yet for you!

In a society in which work and material possessions hold so much priority in our lives, it is vital to stop, look around you, and count the many blessings that you have. Too often we go on with our lives complaining about what we lack and envying what others have instead of remembering the many good fortunes in our lives, which come in the form of beloved people and pets, health, happiness, and more.

This year before the Thanksgiving festivities kick in and you get busy cooking, planning, and stressing out in general, why not take a little bit of time to show what you're really thankful by using our Take Your Pix Board Book photo album?

All you have to do is find some photos of what you are thankful for. This can include photos of your family and friends, pets and other favorite animals, things that you are grateful you own, or even favorite locations and musical artists. You can use old photos, take new photos, or find photos on the Internet of the people and things you're thankful for and print them out.

Next, order one of our Take Your Pix Board Book photo albums from our website www.boardbookalbums.com in your favorite color! The album holds 20 4x6" photos and has a slightly smaller frame on the cover (4x5"), so you can find 21 photos of people and things you're thankful for to include in the album.

What about decorating the album? Feel free to embellish the album with all sorts of things including markers, stickers, scrapbooking material, and so much more! You can include captions below your photos, which can include descriptions of the people, places, or things in your photo are and why you're thankful for them. If you're an artistic soul, you can draw objects pertaining to your photo on the side or above the picture, too.

This can be a fun project for the whole family! You can make an album for yourself, or you can help your children make their own "What I'm Thankful For" albums with their own Take Your Pix Board Book albums. The albums are kid-friendly for all ages! They have thick, durable pages that can endure many degrees of "tough love," and their easy-to-turn pages allow children to turn pages much more simply than other photo albums!

After you are all done with your album, you can keep your album or albums out for the holiday for all to see! Display them on a mantle or end table, or come Thanksgiving, you can even bring them to the table before or after Thanksgiving dinner and show what you are thankful for and why. This could even be a fun activity for your entire family to partake in, and it can truly help make the holiday mean much more than turkey and an afternoon football game.

Are you ready to make your own "What I'm Thankful For" album? Visit our website at www.boardbookalbums.com or give us a call at 1-800-506-9683 and get started right away! Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

How do you celebrate Halloween? Do you take your kids around the neighborhood to go trick-or-treating? Do you and your friends get together to have a good time and enjoy the festivities? Do you dress up your dog to go out somewhere or to just prance around the house and show off to any visitors you get?

However you celebrate the holiday, you can take pictures of your festivities, costumes, and crazy get-togethers and immortalize your Halloween memories in pictures with our Take Your Pix photo albums!

There are so many ways that you can record your Halloween memories in our Take Your Pix albums! You can decorate them by writing captions underneath your photos with markers, putting stickers next to photos, or even make them into a legitimate, bona fide scrapbook! You can check our website for cool scrapbooking ideas if you've run out of ideas or are just starting out in scrapbooking at www.boardbookalbums.com.

Not sure how to get started? Here are a few ideas to help you out:

If you have children and are going trick-or-treating in your neighborhood this year, be sure to break out that camera of yours and take loads of pictures! You can take pictures of your child in and out of his or her costume, where you go, any spooky scenery if it's light enough outside, your friends and neighbors in costume, and the stash of candy your child brings home at the end of the night. Print out all of your photos after Halloween night, and then order one of our famous Take Your Pix photo albums in your favorite color.

Here's another creative idea: Each year take a picture of your child's Halloween costume, from their first Halloween in costume as a baby to when they reach maybe 20 years old. Our Take Your Pix albums can hold 20 4x6" photos, so you can put in 20 Halloween costume photos. For a fun present, surprise your child with the album after it's full of many years of Halloween memories.

If you don't have children, you can still use our photo albums to document your fun Halloween parties and get-togethers! Invite your friends over for a Halloween party (make sure everyone wears a costume!) and take pictures of everyone's costumes, the decorations, where you go to eat (in costume, of course), all the shenanigans you get involved in that night, and anything else fun and Halloween related. Put the best pictures in one of our albums, decorate it, and put it out on display in your home next year at Halloween (or whenever your friends come over) so you can relive the memories together.

If you have a dog or a cat, you know that it's super fun to dress them up in silly costumes every year! Dress up your pet in a neat costume, let it roam around the house, visit with people, or take it for a walk to the park. Take pictures of it sitting, playing dead, greeting others, or running. Take pictures of it in the beautiful fall foliage, near a shoreline, by a cornfield or a pumpkin patch, with children, with other pets, or during sunset. Print out the pictures afterward, put them in our Take Your Pix photo albums, decorate it to your heart's desire, and display it as a "brag book" for all of your guests to see when they visit you.

So do YOU have a Take Your Pix photo album? If not, what are you waiting for? Go online at www.boardbookalbums.com and order one right away or give us a call here at 1-800-506-9683. Start making memories and preserving them today! Have a happy Halloween!

Why, pictures, of course!

After a wedding, a vacation, or a fun night out with friends, the first thing people ask is, "Where are the pictures?!"

Of course, you can always upload your pictures to Facebook so people can look at them and comment on them there, but there's just something about printing your photos somewhere and holding them in your hands to look at them that makes your experiences more real. The clean, crisp look and the hues of all the colors seem richer when printed. And what better way to protect those photos than in an album?

Or how about immortalizing your photos in a personalized scrapbook?

Scrapbooking is one of the most widely practiced pastimes here in America. For years and years, people all over have taken the time to commemorate their memories in their own special way, and they will continue scrapbooking for years to come.

But how much is known about the HISTORY of the pastime? Where did it come from? Why do we spend so much time placing stickers and labels by a photo, writing captions, or drawing photos within the pages?

Believe it or not, scrapbooking originated from the beginning of the 15th century in England, though its beginnings were a bit different from the hobby we all know and love. Scrapbooks began as what was called a "commonplace book" in England, which was a way to gather and store information. They could include letters, poems, quotations, recipes, and more. These commonplace books were unique to the creator's own tastes and interests.

Later in the 16th century, friendship albums became really popular. These albums were actually more on par with today's yearbooks. Friends could write their names, titles, and a short message or drawings if the owner of the album asked for it - just like signing each other's yearbooks at the beginning of the school year! In addition, the albums were usually made as souvenirs of European tours and would usually include coats of arms or works of art commissioned by local artists.

In the late 16th century, people would incorporate colored plates in their friendship books or commonplace books, depicting popular scenes such as Venetian costumes or carnival scenes. The colored plates were more affordable than having an original work of art made, and the plates were specifically used for embellishments for the albums.

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, modern photography took wing, and people were able to incorporate photographs into their scrapbooks instead of solely relying on written word or illustrations. The actual industry of scrapbooking exploded around 1980's and 1990's, and the industry doubled in size between 2001 and 2004.

Here at BoardBook Albums, we continue the longtime hobby of scrapbooking with our Take Your Pix Photo Album. You can decorate and personalize your photo album any way you like, showcasing up to 20 4x6" photos. You can easily scrapbook your wedding, a fun time with your friends, college memories, vacations, and so much more!

Check out our selection and get started with your scrapbook today! Call us here at 1-800-506-9683 or check out our website at www.boardbookalbums.com to see what we have to offer you!

The question is – what are you going to do with all those photos? Will they be printed out only to languish in a desk drawer, collect dust on a forgotten bookcase, or remain hidden from the world in your memory (your camera’s memory, that is)?

What better way to honor your child’s activities and show off the hard work that they do than put them in one of our Take Your Pix Board Book photo albums?

We have all sorts of colors and styles available for you to document your child’s sport seasons, seasonal concerts, recitals, or anything else he or she is involved in. Our Take Your Pix Board Book photo album holds up to 20 4x6” photos and can be decorated to your liking in many different ways. You can make it into a scrapbook, or you can customize it to give as a gift to your child or another close relative.

You can even ask your child to get involved in commemorating their activities! Your child can help decorate the album by adding their favorite stickers and stamps and use markers to create their own little masterpieces within the pages as an embellishment for their photos.

Not sure how to get started? No worries! First off, be sure to take lots and lots of pictures at your child’s activity or activities and either wait till the end of the season to get your photos printed or print as you go! After you have your photos printed and ready to go, why not call us at 1-800-506-9683 and order your own Take Your Pix photo album? From there, insert your photos into our thick, durable, kid-friendly pages and decorate your album however your heart desires.

Is your child involved in multiple activities? Who’s to say you can’t do multiple scrapbooks? We have several different colors to choose from so you can easily differentiate amongst your child’s designated photo albums, and there are so many scrapbook designs to choose from! The Take Your Pix Board Book photo albums would make wonderful birthday or holiday gifts to your child or even to your loved ones. Remember, grandparents are huge fans of photos of their grandchildren, so your personalized Take Your Pix Board Book photo album would make a perfect gift for your parents or in-laws!

So what are you waiting for? Get those photos printed and call us today at 1-800-506-9683 or order from us online at www.boardbookalbums.com and get started on preserving your little one’s childhood (and a little bit of family history for generations to come) today!

To view our recent video segments, please click below!

Who in your family is usually taking these pictures? Mom? Dad?  With the rise of digital photography, many children are now curious to put themselves behind the lens.  If your child seems to take an interest in your camera and is asking to experiment, let them take it – you could have a future professional photographer on your hands!

Young children learn faster than we sometimes realize, so teaching your child about framing, composition and tips on photography can be beneficial to them and can be a fun way to spend time together.
Here are a few tips to get you started!

Teach your child about framing. Most children already have an idea of how the camera works (click button, take picture). Ask them what they are interested in taking a photo of and why. Take them around the yard or your vacation stomping grounds and ask what they’d like to take a photo of. Give them an idea of what should be the focus of their photo.

Perspective and Focus. As adults the concept of perspective and focus is very easy to grasp; But for children? Not so much. Teach them the idea of perspective in that when things are farther away they are smaller and when they are closer they are larger.

Focus falls easily with perspective because when you put the camera to close to an object it will become fuzzy. If your child doesn’t understand, ask them to view their hand at an arm’s length and progressively move it to their face. Does it get blurry as it is closer to their eyes?  This will help them grasp the concept of perspective.

Experimenting. Tell your child it’s okay to take photos from any angle. Encourage them to take photos around the backyard, on excursions with the family and even around the house.  It will be interesting to see their perspective on every day things.  Plus, experimenting can lead to some great pictures!

Preserve the final product:  Finally, a great way to wrap up everything your child has learned about photography is to create a photo album of their favorite photos.  Kids love holding the photos (not just viewing them on a digital viewfinder!) and feel a sense of pride in seeing what they created. Our Board Book Albums are perfect for collecting all of your child’s favorite images and keeping them safe for years to come.

Board Book Albums also make a perfect gift for Mom, Dad, Grandma or Grandpa.  Whether given for a special occasion like Mother’s Day or Christmas, or just to say, “I love you” – parents and grandparents will certainly cherish a gift from their favorite child!

Happy photographing!

Let’s face it, even if you don’t scrapbook, you know someone who does scrapbook. It’s almost like an addiction, once you start scrapbooking you can’t get enough! This would explain the nearly 4 million “scrappies” in the U.S. and the whole section dedicated to the craft in many popular stores like Michaels, Walmart and even Target.

Scrapbooking is certainly here to stay, and here’s why:

You can hold it: There is something magical about being able to touch something or pick it up. You know, similar to people who prefer CDs over MP3 downloads. There is something magical about being able to see the cover artwork, read the lyrics of your favorite song and –most importantly - to know that your music won’t be erased by a virus on your computer.

It is a product of your own: Sure you can buy pre-packaged scrapbooking kits, but even if the elements in each kit are the same, you are the one who decides how they are laid out. There has always been a sense of pride in creating something yourself. Like that birdhouse you built in third grade… sure it was horrible, and when a bird landed on it the darn thing fell to the ground and broke into pieces… but, hey, you made it all by yourself - and for that  reason alone it was pure awesomeness.

It is harder to lose: We can’t count how many times we’ve heard of people losing passwords to their e-mail, or people dropping and breaking their external hard-drives. It is almost scary knowing how easily your photos can be wiped away on a computer. With printed copies of photos in your Board Book Album, you won’t have to worry about that. And, even if it sits on a shelf for a while, one day your grandchildren or great-grandchildren will come across those albums and be able to sift through the pages.  

Kid-Friendly: Our Board Book Albums are especially kid-friendly. (Kids were the inspiration for them!) Flipping through the pages of a photo album or scrapbook can help children with developmental delays learn the faces of friends and family and associate their faces with a name.  It also can relieve separation anxiety for kids when they have to be away from Mommy or Daddy and at daycare or a babysitter’s house.

Sure, the digital scrapbooking revolution has kicked off with a fury, but here at Board Books Albums we’re all a bit sentimental when it comes to holding photos in our hands and decorating the pages how we like to. There is something magical about being able to run your fingers across the pages, picking out the various textures that you selected for the design.

Are you a digital or traditional scrapbooker? Let us know, and if you support Board Books and would like to see us grow, please take a moment to vote for us in the Pitney Bowes Smart Essentials Small Business Makeover contest! You can vote for us here: http://bit.ly/nPsnEM or you can click the image below!

Thank you "Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking" by Katie Scott

http://kissandtellscrapbooking.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/11/ella-product-showcase-board-book-albums-take-your-pix-photo-albums.html

definition of picture exchange communication system (PECS): A form of alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) that uses pictures instead of words to help children communicate. PECS was designed especially for children with autism who have delays in speech development.

What is it?

A picture exchange communication system (PECS) is a form of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) that uses pictures instead of words to help children communicate. PECS was designed especially for children with autism who have delays in speech development.

When first learning to use PECS, the child is given a set of pictures of favorite foods or toys. When the child wants one of these items, he gives the picture to a communication partner (a parent, therapist, caregiver, or even another child). The communication partner then hands the child the food or toy. This exchange reinforces communication.

PECS can also be used to make comments about things seen or heard in the environment. For example, a child might see an airplane overhead, and hand a picture of an airplane to his or her parent. As the child begins to understand the usefulness of communication, the hope is that he will then begin to use natural speech.

What's it like?

A child can be trained in PECS by a parent, caregiver, or therapist who has learned about the method (see Resources). An applied behavior analysis (ABA) approach is used, in which prompts are given to guide the picture exchange. Further, in the early phases of PECS training, the child chooses a picture of a desired food, and receives the food in exchange for the picture. Getting the food is the positive reinforcement for using the picture to communicate.

For more information about PECS and to read the entire article, please click on the link below:

http://autism.healingthresholds.com/therapy/picture-exchange-communication-system-pecs

I hope you find this information useful!