AAC systems for this population generally begin with communication boards and/or object or picture exchanges such as the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). A 2009 descriptive review provided preliminary evidence that PECS is easily learned by most autists, provides communication to those with little or no functional speech, and has some limited positive impact on social interaction and challenging behaviours. A study that compared the use of a speech generating device to a picture exchange system found that both were reasonable options for autistic children, as the ease and speed of acquisition of each system was similar.Son et al.
