Teaching Saturday to Sundae: How Preferred Events Can Help Your Learner Figure Out a Calendar
Teaching learners about the passage of time is important for a variety of reasons. First, when we understand how time passes, we gain information regarding the proximity of reinforcers and punishers. Are they close or far off? As such, we can adjust our moods, play with a different toy, ask for more information, check the clock, label an emotion we feel related to the event, etc. etc.
When we know the amount of time between the present moment and an impending reinforcer or punisher, we change our behavior accordingly. When we don’t know this information (or don’t have a context for what it means), we tend to feel a little more anxious.
Our learners are no different. And that’s why I’ve always advocated for BCBAs to develop an arsenal of programming ideas for teaching the concept and measurement of time.
I’ve written three other similar articles on this topic (see below). I could write 30 more!
Today, I wanted to tackle ways to teach learners to conceptualize (hopefully) calendars.
So, where do we start?
Here are the 3 articles I mentioned above for reference, but scroll further for the rest of this article!
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Today, I wanted to tackle ways to teach learners to conceptualize calendars.
So, where do we start?
Start with finding reinforcing events. Well, a general rule here is that we need to some how make the thing that we’re trying to teach relevant to the learner. In other words, if we’re going to teach a learner to use a calendar to measure the passage of time, we need to make a calendar useful to them.
Like I said, measuring time becomes useful to a learner if it tells them something about the proximity of a reinforcer or a punisher. We can’t simply bust out a calendar and start crossing off or circling dates each day and hope that it sticks. The calendar has to have something on it—an event—that is highly motivating to the learner. This should be an event (or events) that the learner actually wants to know more about. It should be an event so reinforcing that the learner can’t wait for it.
That means we need to sit down with parents and come up with a series of events over the next month that they can plan to do that is significantly reinforcing for the learner. Maybe it’s going out for ice cream sundaes. Maybe it’s going to the waterpark. maybe there’s a birthday party. Whatever it is, it would be an event that the learner is significantly jazzed about. Have the family plan and commit to several of these events within the next month so that the learner has a few of different things to look forward it.
Get a monthly calendar. Next find a calendar that works for you and your learner. The bigger the better usually. You’ll want something that has a box (or similar) for each day of the month so that it’s easy to write or paste something into each box. I like to use big desk calendars that lay flat OR you can use the dry erase board calendars—this is kind of nice because it gives you the option to change the dates each month and they are usually magnetic. The most important thing, however, is that it’s big enough so you can add things to the daily boxes and that it can be transported between the home and center environment during weekends.
Start adding events. Now that you’ve talked with the family about planning and solidifying certain significant and preferred events, it’s time to put them in the schedule. If your learner can read, it can be as simple as writing in the event. However, I would make the square (for that day) that the event is scheduled to happen, something that is salient and that stands out to the learner. I prefer to use stickers pertinent to the event (a sticker of an umbrella and a beach ball for a day at the beach, for example). I also like to color in the square with vibrant colors. When looking at the calendar, it should shout that THIS day, when it comes, is going to be amazing and awesome.
Start Using it. At the beginning of each day, the therapist or caregiver should cross off or color in the previous day so that past days in the month are marked off. You should also try to use some kind of visual stimulus that makes the current day for salient and meaningful. Since I usually use a desk calendar that lays flat, I like to use a game piece from Candyland or and preferred action figure. For magnetic, dry erase calendars, you can use a picture of the learner. At the beginning of each day, you and the learner can move the marker (the game piece, action figure, picture, etc.) from previous day to today and cross out the previous day. On the weekends, when the learner isn’t receiving therapy, make sure to send the calendar home with the family. Have them follow the same protocol.
Fade in more independence. Once you’ve gone through a couple of weeks of this process, continue to ask parents for the date on fun and exciting events that the learner enjoys. Begin to have them move the daily marker every morning and—if they have the dexterity—have them cross out the previous day. Work with them to gain more and more independence here.
Begin to target programs related to calendars. Continue to use the calendar on a daily basis as you have been. But, begin to use the calendar to teach the learner other skills related to the passage of time. Here are a few ideas
Cut out names and abbreviations of the days of the week and the months and have the learner order them or name them in order.
Using the calendar, have the learner receptively identify, label, or answer questions about the following areas.
Today, yesterday, and tomorrow. Having something that makes “today” more salient (like the game piece) helps the learner figure out where yesterday and tomorrow are at, too.
The names of the days of the week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday etc.) and the month. Ex: “Find a Tuesday!”, “Find the month we are in!”, “What day is today?”, “What day do we go to the waterpark?”
The date. Ex: “Find May 19th!”, “What is today’s date?”, “When do we go to the waterpark?”
How many days there are until the next fun thing. “How many days are there until we go to the waterpark?”.
Our primary goal here is to sell the learner on the idea that the calendar gives them information regarding an upcoming, awesome event. So, the name of the game is for you and the caregivers to find events that they enjoy and to highlight them throughout the month.
I’ve said before that calendars are no different than a map. Where a map helps us measure and predict the abstractions related to space, calendars help us measure and predict the abstractions related to time. In the same way we take interest in street names because they help us reach our preferred destination, the learner may take more interest in learning the days, months, and dates because they relate more directly to a preferred event.
What other ways have you used to teach learners about time?
Let me know!
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