My hobby project for parents with autistic children

PECS made easy

http://www.PECSforAll.com
from Elemental Forums

Hi all,

We have the experience that we can help our youngest son of 7 (who is diagnosed with autism) a lot when we
visualize the daily tasks for him. Things like drying himself after taking a shower, taking a shower etc can be performed without our help after we visualized those tasks for him. And after a while he can do this without those visualizations.

Creating those visualizations was a lot of work, using Word with pictures is a pain. Especially when you want to change / move things around.
Therefore I've created a application (i'm a software developer for 14 years now). To make this easy. I'm currently sharing it for free and it is combined with 5000 pictures.

The Pictos are coming from the website www.Sclera.be and have a Dutch, English and French translation. The application itself also supports those languages.

At the main screen picto sheets can be viewed and added. Each sheet can be printed. Pictos can easily be selected from a list and placed between existing pictos, this makes it extremely easy to alter existing picto sheets.

A nice blog that gives an good impression can be found at:
www.freeprintablefun.org/

Martijn van der Kooij, Netherlands
Creator of Picto Selector - www.PECSforAll.com

(And yes, i've spend not much time with Demigod or Elemental lately because of this project ;-) )

off-topic
118,044 views 21 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

This could really help many people to understand and help children effected with this disorder ! Thank you for posting this info and what a great idea to help parents and give them tools to help their children live! Karma sent!

 

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Version 1.0.8 is online

Several enhancements
- added several buttons with the most used function, for people who do not like to use the right mouse button menu
- You can now also set a border for the Sclera pictos, this is usefull if you have reversed the colors and still want a border around it
- added a "Send to Yahoo Group", not yet available for the english and french translation. But i'm developing a way to put the picto sheets online in a yahoo group. I will first do this for the dutch localization and then start with a english version
- When openening a .pszip file in explorer picto selector will open the file.

I changed the way email can be send from Picto Selector. Before it was depending on Microsoft Office to send email. Now a online connection is all you need.
The Dutch localization has now a nice windows with some explanation how people can send their picto sheets to the 'cookbook'. A yahoo group with the work of other users. When enough people are interested I will create such groups for other localizations.

The new version can be installed by selecting the menu item "Check for updates" in the "File" menu.

 

 

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm sorry but why would an autistic kid need this? Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't autistic mean something different? IIRC autistic children are just as smart as others(and usually smarter) although they have some issues with being independent, but they mostly have social problems not I can't dry myself after the shower problems. Obviously I don't have an autistic son, so you may know more about it.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting lifekatana, reply 3
I'm sorry but why would an autistic kid need this? Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't autistic mean something different? IIRC autistic children are just as smart as others(and usually smarter) although they have some issues with being independent, but they mostly have social problems not I can't dry myself after the shower problems. Obviously I don't have an autistic son, so you may know more about it.

A lot of autistic children are easily distracted (also applies to ADHD ofcourse) and when you tell them to do something, you often need to tell each step over and over again. This is not because they are not smart enough (our son has a tested IQ of 115) but they depend a lot on visuals and structure.

With those visualizations we can tell him to look back were he was in his task and continue from there. After a while this becomes second nature. And without the need to tell him over and over again what he should do he will continue his task himself.

I've made a small introduction video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_hx3BUxPdM of picto selector.

(For you're information. I've had a lot of responses of parents who are very glad with this tool. At least there are a lot of children who benefit)

 

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

What i forgot to tell:

There is an other group of people who are using the tool. I was a bit surprised when i heard it. I know someone who is using it to create some instructions in case one of her other personalities take over.

I have also used it to create a sheet of photo's and print it.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

As an Aspie I can speak somewhat from experiance, Autistic children learn and think differently. Commonly they work much better with visual stimuli so something like this would be a huge benefit. Keep up the good work.

 

For those not familiar with what i'm talking about there is a book called "Thinking in Pictures" by Dr. Temple Grandin that can be a great window into the autistic mind.

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Version 1.1.0 is now online.

Added (and translated from english to dutch and french) the Mulberry symbols (1500 of them)

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

This is great and I admire your cause! Keep it up!

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

Version 1.2 is now online. It's a big download (167MB) and includes the Sclera.be, Mulberry and Arasaac symbols. This is a total of over 11000 symbols.

Supported languages are Dutch, English, French and Spanish. See the startpage of PECSforAll for details about the translation status.

When updating the complete download will be used. After this update the updates will be the normal (2 MB) size.

As always on: http://PECSforAll.com

Martijn

Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top

Version 1.2.3 is now online.

- Clock Picto. A new picto type that represents a clock. Add a clock picto, set the time and change it's appearance and ready.

- double click on a picto in the picto list will add that picto on the top picto sheet (if one of them is opened)

Clock picto on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A4CAHyoOvY

The new version can be installed by selecting the menu item "Check for updates" in the "Help" menu.

Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top

Version 1.2.4 is now online

- Time Timer Picto. A new picto type that represents a time timer. Add a time timer picto, set the time and change it's appearance and ready.
- 140 new Arasaac symbols
- german and italian translations of the Arasaac symbols added
- an option in the RMB of a picto in a picto sheet to reset the name to it's original value
- added a new wrong bitmap, a forbidden cross as used in road signs (see
movie)
- i've made the good / wrong pictures less transparant, this improves it visibility


Time Timer picto on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ktrgXlBPZI

Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top

<deleted double post>

Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I think it is just too much TV and sugar, and not enough time spent in the old fashion ways.

Or did I just 'luck out' with all my kids that have not been 'diagnosed' with all these new kind of 'diseases'?

I guess it could simply be genetics.

But still, I wonder. Why do these types of things seem to be occurring more and more?

 

Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Moosetek13, reply 13
I think it is just too much TV and sugar, and not enough time spent in the old fashion ways.

Or did I just 'luck out' with all my kids that have not been 'diagnosed' with all these new kind of 'diseases'?

I guess it could simply be genetics.

But still, I wonder. Why do these types of things seem to be occurring more and more?

 

ADHD was often a misdiagnosis.  Autism is probably caused by something specific that we don't quite know yet afaik.

Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top

Picto Selector is currently at 1.2.10 with over 14000 symbols...

 

Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Savyg, reply 14

Quoting Moosetek13, reply 13I think it is just too much TV and sugar, and not enough time spent in the old fashion ways.

Or did I just 'luck out' with all my kids that have not been 'diagnosed' with all these new kind of 'diseases'?

I guess it could simply be genetics.

But still, I wonder. Why do these types of things seem to be occurring more and more?

 

ADHD was often a misdiagnosis.  Autism is probably caused by something specific that we don't quite know yet afaik.

 

It looks like something is increasing the chance on Autism, but there is also a genetic part involved. And the definition of autism is wider these days.

 

Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top

After some updates there are now 16000 symbols included...

Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top

And after even more updates there are now over 22000 symbols included.

It is now also using a database as backend enabling it to be used in a network or standalone.

Reply #20 from Elemental Forums Top

Wow, this is fantastic.  This is perfect for people with Autism, from what I remember from my schooling, it fits with exactly how they process information.  Good job.

Reply #21 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

The picture database is still growing and contains now over 28000 pictures :-) The website is also updated: www.pictoselector.eu