Students, graduates and professorial staff of the Faculty of Special Education, Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU), participated on May 23 in a training meeting
conducted by Armine Avagyan, Dean of the Faculty of Special Education, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences and Associate Professor.
The latter familiarised the special educators with the Picture Exchange Communication System, (PECS). Then with the help of books, didactic materials and games awarded by the PYRAMID Organisation, the dean presented the role and importance of PECS and the need to apply it in practice.
Emphasizing the positive impact of PECS during the treatment of people with speech disorders and autism spectrum disorders, Armine Avagyan noted with regret that the technical difficulties connected with the teaching materials do not allow using the method frequently in Armenia. “Although PECS is largely believed to be a training method, in Germany it is considered to be the most effective method of treatment for children suffering from autism. Even at home you can get this kind of didactic materials and help people with communication problems with proper professional intervention,” she said.
During the training, the participants watched
“Levon in the Store,” a video represented at the international video contest dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the US-based PYRAMID Organisation which presented the application of PECS - a promising method for improving communication skills of people with autism spectrum disorders. The video represented by the Dean of the Faculty of Special Education, ASPU, took the 2nd place at the competition.
Armine Avagyan, Dean of the Faculty of Special Education, is one of the unique specialists in Armenia who has the right to apply the PECS method in the teaching process.
Armine Manucharyan, a graduate of the ASPU, Department of Logopaedics (1996) was again at the University. The special educator confesses that nowadays students have a wider choice of in-depth studies; in the past it was difficult to imagine that one can strengthen theoretical knowledge in practice during the learning process. She considers the training conducted by her course-mate to be an innovation which she is going to apply in her work.
Mariam Petrosyan, a second-year student taking a distance learning course, also intends to apply the Picture Exchange Communication System in her activities. The future educator, who already applies the PECS method in practice, confesses that she sometimes has had doubts about the work with children but today’s training will help her apply the method in the correct way and achieve the desired result.
At the end of the meeting, Armine Avagyan said in order to develop the practical skills of special educators she was going to give the books, teaching materials and games received by the PYRAMID Organisation to the Faculty’s new laboratory which is already under construction.
