DAY OF THE WEEK LESSON

A source of frustration for students who have limited language skills can be, for lack of a better word, a fear of the unknown. A student with poor receptive and expressive language can have difficulty knowing what's coming next, or when they should be engaging in a certain activity. To overcome this obstacle, many educators utilize a visual schedule, typically individualized to the student's needs/abilities. Something that comes up with the students in our classroom is difficulty with the weekends, or vacations, whenever there is a long break from school. It is hard to tell if our students have an understanding of weekends, holidays, when there is school and when there is no school. To help with this abstract concept- we can use PECS.

You can use the PECS pictured above to create a weekly calendar for a student. Laying out the days of the week (Su M Tu W Th F Sa) on the top row, and printing out additional copies of the "school" and "home" icons, and lining the bottom row with the appropriate icon. The "holiday" icon can be utilized here if there is a long weekend or holiday that week. Then, in reviewing the schedule with your student, you can use the visuals to help better embed the idea of "home days" vs. "school days" to the student. This is a helpful tool for parents in the home setting as well as educators in the school setting.