Time

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick…..tick…….tick

Aspie teen had no idea of time.
He can’t ‘sense’ when the time has passed while he’s been reading or working on a project.
He can’t look at the sky or the shadows and guess whether it’s morning or afternoon, those little things around us that we pick up mostly without being told.
A friend of ours suggested an egg timer, a little $2 cheapie thing with one of those ear-piercing bell alarms that let the whole world know you’ve over-boiled your eggs………again.
So.
It worked for Aspie teen.
No longer did he park himself in the backyard for hours watching ants or prattle his “in a minute” when engrossed in a book/tv show/game.
We put the egg timer on his games when arguments ensued – 30 mins on the games and 1 minute less for each time he’d refuse to do something with the “In a minute” chant.
How often do we say that “In a minute” without any real intention of being literally just one minute?
To someone with no concept of what the value of a minute was this was just a throw-away comment.
Until those precious minutes started flying past on the egg timer – how often did we hear “That can’t be right! I just started eating my dinner!” when we got tired of dinner being dragged out for 2 hours or “But that can’t be 30 mins already!” when his gaming time was up
.
Suddenly, he realised how quickly time was whooshing past without his noticing and when he’s reminded of losing some of those precious minutes from his gaming time – whoosh!
It’s amazing how quickly he gets a wriggle on these days!
Sure, it’s not all sunshine and roses and we’ve had to incorporate a large-faced analogue watch for him to use (with much nagging reminding to wear it) as he’s great with digital but analogue gives a more precise indication of time passing.
Look at a digital clock.
It’s just numbers.
Look at an analogue clock face.
Its hands are a picture telling you how much time until the next hour.
You can count the 5-minute increments between the numbers, the value of a minute is right there staring you in the face and the movement of the hands gives you the underlying message that time does not stand still.
Aspie teen still isn’t fantastic but he’s better with time management, organization, and study.

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