Getting started with PECS Phase 1 and 2 in everyday therapy sessions

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is one of the most widely used augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) approaches for children and adults who have difficulty speaking. Developed by Lori Frost and Andrew Bondy, the protocol follows a structured set of phases that move learners from a single spontaneous exchange to building sentences and commenting on the world around them. For speech-language pathologists (SLPs), teachers, and families across Australia, PECS offers a clear, evidence-informed pathway that fits well into everyday routines at home, in early childhood settings, and in primary school classrooms.

Phase 1 and Phase 2 are often described as the foundations of the protocol, and getting them right makes every later phase smoother. Phase 1 is about teaching the learner that communication means handing a picture to a communicative partner in exchange for a desired item. Phase 2 builds distance and persistence, encouraging the learner to seek out a partner and travel to them. Together, these two phases establish the expectation that the learner is a valued communicator who actively initiates, rather than passively responds.

In Australian therapy settings, PECS is regularly funded through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) for participants with a range of diagnoses, including autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, and developmental delays. School-based SLPs working across New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland often combine PECS with classroom visuals, while private practitioners in Adelaide, Perth, and Hobart adapt the protocol to suit clinic rooms and home visits. Parents and education assistants also play a key role in carrying over PECS across the day, particularly during snack time, recess, and group activities.

This article walks through how to teach PECS Phase 1 and Phase 2 step by step, with practical examples drawn from real Australian therapy contexts. Whether you are a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP) registered with AHPRA, a final-year speech pathology student on placement, or a parent who has just received an AAC recommendation, the strategies below will help you plan, teach, and troubleshoot these first two phases with confidence.

Phase 1 and Phase 2 at a glance

Before diving into the practical steps, it helps to see the two phases side by side. The table below compares the core purpose, learner goal, communicative partner role, and a key teaching prompt for each phase. Keep this overview handy when you are writing lesson plans or discussing progress with a parent or education assistant.

Feature	Phase 1 — Physical exchange	Phase 2 — Distance and persistence
Core purpose	Learner hands a single picture to a partner to receive a desired item	Learner seeks out a partner and travels across a space to deliver the picture
Learner goal	Communicate intentionally with a familiar partner	Initiate communication with a less familiar partner across distance
Communicative partner role	Wait expectantly, accept the picture, and honour the request	Move around the room, become harder to find, and respond with enthusiasm
Key teaching prompt	Use a physical prompt if needed, then fade quickly to a time delay	Encourage the learner to walk, gesture, or vocalise to locate the partner
Common setting	Table-top therapy or snack time at home	Classroom, playground, or community setting
Typical duration	A few sessions to several weeks	A few weeks to a term, depending on learner profile

Understanding the PECS Phase 1 and 2 framework

The protocol is deliberately behavioural in its roots, drawing on applied behaviour analysis principles such as reinforcement, prompting, and systematic fading. In Phase 1, the SLP or communication partner begins by sitting opposite the learner with two highly preferred items. A single picture card representing one of the items is placed on the table. The learner is taught, through prompting if necessary, to pick up the picture and place it into the open hand of the communicative partner. The moment the picture touches the partner's hand, the item is delivered immediately, followed by an enthusiastic natural consequence such as "Oh, you want the bubbles!".

This very simple exchange is repeated many times across a session, then across days and weeks, until the learner understands the cause-and-effect relationship between their action and the outcome. Speech-language pathologists working under NDIS plans in Australia often map this goal directly onto a participant's plan, writing it as "initiates communication to request a preferred item using a picture exchange" so that progress can be tracked and reviewed at plan reassessments.

Phase 2 shifts the focus from the act of exchanging to the social act of seeking out a partner. Once the learner can reliably hand a picture to a familiar partner at the table, the partner gradually introduces distance. The learner might need to walk two metres to a parent, then across the room to a teacher's aide, then down a corridor to a less familiar staff member. The communicative partner should fade their prompts slowly, often using the time-delay procedure described in the official PECS training manual, while still making the exchange feel rewarding and fun.

For school-based clinicians, this second phase often coincides with the busy rhythm of Australian school terms. Many SLPs find that consolidating Phase 2 across a full school term, with weekly data collection and daily classroom routines, is more successful than rushing into Phase 3 before the learner is confidently independent. If you are juggling a large primary school caseload, the practical strategies in school-based-therapy-how-to-manage-a-caseload-of-60-students can help you protect dedicated AAC teaching time without losing track of your other goals.

Setting up your PECS teaching environment

A well-prepared environment saves hours of frustration during the first two phases. Start with a small communication book, often called a PECS book, even during Phase 1. A sturdy vinyl or board book with hook-and-loop fastener strips on each page is ideal for Australian settings, where outdoor learning spaces, sandpits, and water play are common. The pictures should be clear, real-life photographs where possible, printed in a consistent size and laminated for durability. If you are working in a remote or regional community, organisations like the Royal Flying Doctor Service and state-based technology libraries sometimes loan communication resources to families who would otherwise struggle to access them.

Picture selection matters just as much as the book itself. In Phase 1, you are only teaching one picture at a time, so choose an item that is genuinely motivating for the learner. Avoid pulling a generic set of everyday objects from a school cupboard and assume they will work. Instead, complete a brief preference assessment beforehand: offer paired choices, observe what the learner reaches for, and ask parents and teachers what the learner asks for at home. For a child in a Brisbane kindergarten, this might be a particular digger toy. For a teenager in a Melbourne group home, it might be a specific music track or a particular iced coffee from the local café.

The communicative partner also needs preparation. Two adults are ideal for Phase 1: one to sit opposite the learner and act as the communicative partner, and one to sit slightly behind the learner to provide a physical prompt if required. In a clinic setting, this often means the SLP and a therapy assistant. In a school, it might be the SLP and the classroom teacher, or the SLP and a parent during a school visit. The second person fades out as soon as the learner is exchanging independently, which is usually within the first few teaching sessions.

Finally, plan your session length and frequency. PECS responds to short, frequent teaching blocks rather than long, infrequent sessions. Five to ten minutes, two to four times a day, is far more effective than a thirty-minute weekly session. In Australian early childhood centres, this often fits neatly into morning circle, snack, and outdoor play routines, allowing the learner to generalise the skill across people, settings, and items.

Teaching Phase 1: the physical exchange

When you are ready to teach, arrange the two preferred items on the table in front of the learner, with the corresponding picture card on the table or attached to the PECS book. The communicative partner opens their hand, palm up, in a clear, expectant gesture. If the learner does not reach for the picture spontaneously, the second adult provides a gentle physical prompt, such as guiding the learner's hand to pick up the picture and place it in the partner's hand. The instant the picture is transferred, the partner says an enthusiastic natural response and immediately gives the learner the corresponding item.

Fading the physical prompt is the most important clinical skill in Phase 1. Once the learner is exchanging with a full hand-over-hand prompt, move to a hand-on-shoulder prompt, then to a light touch, then to a point, and finally to no prompt at all. A common mistake is to skip straight from hand-over-hand to no prompting, which often results in the learner losing confidence and refusing to engage. For learners who have sensory processing differences, take your time over this fading process and adapt the prompts to the learner's comfort level. Many Australian SLPs working within NDIS plans document each prompt level carefully so that progress can be shared with families and allied health teams.

Another key teaching strategy in Phase 1 is to teach two communicators before introducing two pictures. This means the learner first learns to hand a single picture to a second familiar person, such as a parent or teacher's aide, before being asked to discriminate between two picture cards. This sequence respects how the protocol was designed and reduces the risk of the learner picking up pictures randomly rather than intentionally. It also gives families a meaningful role from the very first session, which often improves carryover at home.

Teaching Phase 2: distance and persistence

Phase 2 begins once the learner is reliably exchanging a single picture with a familiar partner at the table. The aim of this phase is to teach the learner to notice a communicative partner, move towards them, and complete the exchange even when the partner is across the room or in a different part of the house. Start by simply moving one metre away, then two, then further, while keeping the same highly preferred item. Use the same picture card and the same enthusiastic response, so the learner does not have to learn a new concept at the same time as a new distance.

As distance increases, many learners benefit from a gestural or vocal cue to help them locate the partner. A small wave, a call of the learner's name, or a soft "I have your bubbles" can all work, provided they do not become prompts the learner depends on. The long-term goal is for the learner to seek the partner out independently, and to keep trying if their first attempt does not get a response. This is where the concept of persistence becomes central to Phase 2.

In a school setting, Phase 2 can be embedded naturally into daily routines. For example, the learner might be taught to walk across the classroom to give a picture to a teacher's aide during literacy rotations, or to walk down the school corridor to deliver a picture to the deputy principal before assembly. In a community setting, the learner might practise seeking out a shop assistant or a librarian in a local public library, such as the State Library of Victoria or Brisbane Square Library. These real-world opportunities help the learner generalise the skill far more effectively than clinic-only practice.

If you notice the learner becoming prompt-dependent, stopping when the partner is out of sight, or handing pictures to the wrong person, slow the pace and return to a shorter distance for a few sessions before progressing again. PECS is designed to be taught in small, mastered steps, and rushing Phase 2 is one of the most common reasons clinicians find later phases difficult.

Tracking progress and generalising skills

Data collection during Phase 1 and Phase 2 does not need to be complex to be useful. A simple tally of independent exchanges per session, plus a brief note on the prompt level used, is often enough to show progress over a school term or an NDIS plan period. Speech Pathology Australia's national practice guidelines encourage SLPs to share AAC data with the learner's full team, including occupational therapists, teachers, and family members, so that everyone is working towards the same goal.

Generalisation is the real measure of success. A learner who exchanges independently only with one SLP in a clinic room has not yet mastered Phase 1 in any meaningful sense. Aim for the learner to exchange with at least three different communicative partners across at least two different settings before moving confidently into Phase 3. Australian parents often report that this is the moment their child begins to feel truly heard at home, during weekend outings to the local park, or at family barbecues where multiple adults are present.

If you would like printable picture cards, data sheets, and a session plan template to support your PECS teaching, you can find them in the shop on this site. The materials are designed to be used alongside the official PECS training protocol and are suited to both clinic and classroom contexts across Australia. Subscribe to the email list for new resources, practical tips, and free downloads that arrive straight in your inbox each month, and feel free to share this article with a colleague who is just beginning their PECS journey.