It is known that some autistic individuals are considered non-verbal, since they are unable to use verbal language and barely use gestures to compensate for the absence of speech. Therefore, these individuals' ability to communicate may benefit from the use of the Picture Exchange Communication System - PECS. The objective of this study was to verify the most frequently used words in the implementation of PECS in autistic children, and on a complementary basis, to analyze the correlation between the frequency of these words and the rate of maladaptive behaviors.
This is a cross-sectional study. The sample was composed of 31 autistic children, twenty-five boys and six girls, aged between 5 and 10 years old. To identify the most frequently used words in the initial period of implementation of PECS, the Vocabulary Selection Worksheet was used. And to measure the rate of maladaptive behaviors, we applied the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC).
There was a significant prevalence of items in the category "food", followed by "activities" and "beverages". There was no correlation between the total amount of items identified by the families and the rate of maladaptive behaviors.
The categories of words most mentioned by the families could be identified, and it was confirmed that the level of maladaptive behaviors did not interfere directly in the preparation of the vocabulary selection worksheet for the children studied.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 May 2017.
All research outputs
#17,157,956
of 28,257,452 outputs
Outputs from CoDAS
#101
of 455 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#178,608
of 327,228 outputs
Outputs of similar age from CoDAS
#5
of 11 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 28,257,452 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 39th percentile – i.e., 39% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 455 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 2.0. This one has done well, scoring higher than 77% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 327,228 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 45th percentile – i.e., 45% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 11 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 54% of its contemporaries.
