Trevy’s Weekly Picture Schedule

 

 

Trevy perseverates. 

 

 

Which is just a fancy way of  saying he often does or says the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and…you get the idea.

 

 

It’s a symptom of having a Traumatic Brain Injury.  And it’s something that he really can’t help.  His little mind gets stuck.  Like a scratched record.

 

 

This is why we try like crazy NOT to mention what may be happening tomorrow…or God forbid…in a couple weeks!

 

 

Even though I know he can’t entirely help asking the same question all the live long day.  I still go a little bonkers answering that same &$%# question over and over again!  Proof that I’m only human! 

 

 

Most of his questions involve what he’s doing.  Or going to be doing. 

 

 

Every morning he wakes up and asks, “Family Day today?”

 

 

Family Day to Trevy means NO school.  No work.  Daddy time.  FREEDOM!  And he LOVES his Family Days.

 

 

Which only lends itself to NOT so much loving his School Days.

 

 

Welcome to Life, Buddy. 

 

 

Sooooooo…

 

 

I finally decided to have a weekly picture schedule made to use at home.  I did NOT make this myself.  Our wonderful home-based ABA team made it for me.  They’re awesome!  It’s the first weekly schedule they’ve made and I promise you as great as it is – it is a work in progress! 

 

 

Buuuuut…

 

 

Just in case you were thinking to make (or ask someone else to make – which, because I’m lazy, I highly recommend) one for your little miracle…here are some pictures of our set up to get your creative juices flowing.

 

 

I originally painter’s taped our schedule out of reach on the fridge.  Because I know that I know that I know…Trevy WILL rearrange his schedule!  But he couldn’t see it effectively taped to the fridge so I (bit the bullet and) moved it to the school room.  Where it hangs at eye (and finger…am I crazy?!?!) level for him.

 

 

 

One of the hardest parts for me was brainstorming up all the pictures I might need.

 

I don’t know why but somehow when I have to organize too many things at once my brain turns to mush.

 

Hooray for me, though…I did it!  Of course, as we’re implementing the schedule we’re already learning new ones we need to add.  Oh, and I decided to keep it broad.  Think:  school, church, special olympics.  Rather than dissecting each little step along the way.  I’m just using key points that we typically discuss (ad nauseam) daily.  Also, I’m working on getting real pictures of the various peeps in his life.  Because Board Maker just doesn’t do them justice. 

 

 

We’re doing one day at a time to decrease the amount of visual clutter.

 

It’s actually not as big of a pain in the boot to set up each morning as I thought it would be.  Especially because Trevy LOVES his schedule!  It’s something we do together – which allows me to sneak in some Speech.  And fine motor – when I make him put non-preferred tasks back in place!

 

 

As events are completed I have Trevy move the PEC into the pocket chart that lives next door.

 

Please, excuse Trevy’s artistic expression on the cork board. 

 

 

From the pocket chart I then move them into our handy dandy PECS binder. 

 

Inside the binder are laminated sheets of paper.  Smothered in itsy bitsy velcro (rough side) squares.  Some day (when I find that dang pack of laminating paper that I bought and lost) I’ll laminate colored paper to help organize more effectively.  But for now…it’s just boring clean and fresh white.

 

 

If you’re starting any kind of picture schedule…it’s super important to be consistent with how you use the velcro.  We put the rough side wherever the picture will be stuck to and the soft side on the back of our pictures.

 

 

Even though most of my pictures have a place to live on a laminated page…there are always little odds and ends.  I love my zippered pencil holder to store the extras.

 

 

Below Top Row Left:  Trevy can’t get enough of the “go to bathroom” booty hanging out card!

 

 

 

We have (hit & miss) used PECS in the past as well.

 

Below is a picture of some of the very first cards we used with him.  If you’ve never, ever used PECS with your kiddo before, I would recommend starting SIMPLE!

 

Maybe with just pictures of family members or YES and NO cards.  I would make them LARGE and color the YES green and NO red.  I know ours are itty bitty and aren’t colored…but it’s been on my to-do list forever!

 

 

Lastly, I couldn’t resist getting Trevy and his schedule antics on video for you!  Also, being the ham that he is…you’ll see a little snippet of our sight word game too.  It’s a Two-Fer! 

 

 

 

…danielle