Visual Timers to the Rescue: Keeping your Sanity during Covid-19
Most of the kids we work with have a loose concept of time. This lack of awareness of time is NOT helpful when you have to be on a conference call and your child keeps interrupting to ask you how much longer until dinner. Telling them to wait just “5 more minutes” isn’t helpful if your child has no internal sense of what five more minutes actually feels like.
How do children learn to tell time?
Infants as young as 6 months old are able to tell the difference between a short and a longer duration of time (e.g. seconds versus minutes). However, the ability to read a clock or judge how long it takes to accomplish a task does not develop until much later in childhood and into early adulthood. Our ability to sense and track time depend on two main brain structures: the prefontral cortex and the striatum. Unfortunately, research suggests that the prefrontal cortex doesn’t fully mature until late adolescence or even the early 20s, And children with learning, language, attention or executive functioning differences develop these skills even later.
Poor executive functioning skills and time awareness can may explain why your child is dawdling over breakfast while you’re yelling at them that they need to be ready for school NOW.
Enter the visual timer
Visual timers allow your child to “see” the movement of time through clear, visual signals. Visual timers have many uses and benefits. They can:
Give children an understanding of time concepts without them having to be able to tell time. When using a visual timer, children can see the time remaining without having to figure out the hands on a clock.
Teach the concept of “How much longer?” Children can look at a visual timer and know for themselves “how much longer” without having to ask—knowing they have only a few minutes left to clean up their rooms, for example.
Help children who have difficulty moving from one activity to another to anticipate and be ready for the change. If children know that an activity is almost over, they can begin to prepare to switch to a new activity—putting away an assignment and getting ready to go to lunch, for example.
Improve children’s focus on tasks and activities. When they complete an activity, using a visual timer, children can see time passing and can use their time better—double-checking their answers on a test before the five minutes left are up, for example.
Recommended visual timers:
Many educators and speech therapists use the Time Timer, a 60-minute timer with a visible red disk that slowly disappears as time runs out or a similar tool. With tools like the Time Timer, time is no longer just some abstraction that’s arbitrarily measured out by adults. They can see it now. Like nothing else, watching that red circle shrink into ever-smaller slices motivates kids to finish before it’s gone. Doing so helps children internalize how the passage of time feels and assists in developing time management skills they can build on as they grow. Other options include:
Visual Timer on iTunes.
Mr Bomb and Friends, kids love this one! Just make sure it’s not too distracting.
Visual Countdown Timer on iTunes.
Kids Timer on Google Play
Visual Task Timer on iTunes.
Children’s Countdown Timer on Google Play
Visual Timers, on iTunes.
Timer for Kids, on Google Play
Happy Kids Timer, Google Play (I like this one because it also has chores!)
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Citations:
Brannon, E.M., Suanda, S. & Libertus, K. (2007). Temporal discrimination increases in precision over development and parallels the development of numerosity discrimination. Developmental Science 10, 6, 770–777.
Coull, J.T., Vidal, F., Nazarian, B. & Macar, F. (2004). Functional anatomy of the attentional modulation of time estimation. Science, 303, 1506–1508.