"Brief report: increase in production of spoken words in some children with autism after PECS teaching to Phase III".

Carr et al. (2007) gave 24 autistic children about 15 hours of PECS teaching. They stopped at Phase III, where kids hand a picture to get something.

A control group got no PECS. The team counted each child’s spoken words before and after.

Five of the 24 PECS kids began saying more words. None lost speech. In the control group, four children actually used fewer words.

The jump was small, but it showed PECS can nudge speech without hurting it.

Doughty et al. (2002) saw the same spark earlier. All three of their autistic kids talked more after PECS. Deborah’s larger group shows the gain is real but not universal.

Anonymous (2019) swapped pictures for an iPad. Their teens asked for items but speech gains were hit-or-miss. The device helped requesting, not talking.

Heinicke et al. (2012) pushed PECS further. They taught kids to hand pictures to peers, not just adults. Speech wasn’t the goal, yet social turns grew.

Together, the papers say: PECS builds requests first. Speech may follow for about one in five kids.

You can start PECS without fear of killing speech. If a child is in the lucky fifth, you may hear new words within weeks. Keep measuring both pictures and voice so you catch the shift early.