The number of children with autism is increasing worldwide. These children like all other children should be provided with equal chances for learning and education. Thus, English language education is not an exception as the need to learn it in today's world is inevitable. The present study sought to investigate the effect of employing Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) on English as a foreign language vocabulary learning relying on its effectiveness in first language communication. As a single-subject study an experimental A-B design was employed through repeated measurement. The participants were two highfunctioning children with autism aged 9 and 12 at a school for students with special needs. The treatment phase included 15 sessions. An analysis of visual inspection and graphic representation revealed performance improvement in both cases after the intervention. Moreover, some problems while educating the two participants for English vocabulary including lack of cooperation in phase 2, lack of attention and cooperation in mid-intervention, sense problems such as proprioceptive and ABOUT THE AUTHOR ZZ and MZ are assistant professors at the English department of the Islamic Azad University of Mashhad. Their fields of interest for research are mainly concerned with language education. NMS is also an assistant professor and the dean of the Department of Occupational Therapy of the Medical University of Mashhad. He is involved in research on education and the rehabilitation of children with special needs including children with autism. The authors are interested in investigating the effectiveness of different teaching methodologies on learners with and without special needs including children with autism. The number of children with autism is increasing worldwide and they also need to be provided with equal chances for learning as well as education. Hence, language education is not an exception. Accordingly, the present paper includes the description of an experiment conducted on children with autism and their vocabulary learning using Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS).

Objective Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have a lot of sensory integration problems, which severly interfere with their learning process in the classroom; therefore, they confront with difficult problems in academic achievements. As a result, they need environmental modification to resolve sensory seeking behaviors and improve their educational success. Considering the effects of sensory stimulation and integration in children with ASD, this study aimed to examine the impacts of sitting on a ball, cushion, and or common chair on classroom behavior of 4 students with ASD. Because alternative seating like therapy balls and air cushions instead of regular chairs can exert various sensory stimuli on student's sensory organs, this study aimed to examine the effects of three alternative classroom-seating devices; i.e. regular classroom chairs, therapy balls, and air cushions on students' classroom behaviors. These behaviors include on-seat behavior, on-task behavior, and autistic behavior. Materials & Methods In this study, 4 male students with ASD in Tabasom Primary School, Mashhad, Iran were investigated in a single-subject study. Their classroom behaviors were recorded and monitored by video recording in an A-B-A-C single-subject design for 4 weeks. Their classroom behaviors were video recorded in 3 phases: Students sat on a normal chair in baseline phases (A), on a cushions in second phase (B), and on a therapy ball in third phase (C). The students' behaviors (including sitting times; in-seat and on-task/ off-task behaviors) were observed and recorded every other day, a session per day, and 10 minutes each session (in total 12 sessions equal to 120 minutes). Sitting times and on-task/off-task behaviors were quantified by momentary time sampling and compared during different phases for important changes. Social validity was taken by the teacher at the end of the research as well. Additionally, the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale -Second Edition test was used to examine stereotyped movements, social and communication skills of the students before and after the research. Social and communication skills of the subjects were evaluated before and after the intervention using The Vineland Social Maturity Scale. Statistical software SPSS version 19 and Excel software were used to analyze the descriptive statistics and drawing diagrams, respectively. Results The findings of this research demonstrated increases in on-task and in-seat behaviors in 4 students when seated on air sit cushioned chairs and therapy balls when compared to seating on regular chairs. But, despite increase in on-task behaviors for all students, only two of the students showed improved in-seat behaviors when seated on therapy balls. An increase of 11.7% in on-task behaviors was observed during sitting on a therapy ball, when compared to regular chairs. Furthermore, a 25% increase was observed in on-task behavior of students when they were seated on air sit cushioned chairs in comparison with regular chairs. The in-seat behaviors were increase...

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