What age did your child develop a concept ot time?

[orangehead]

ds2 aged 6 regularly comes out with comments like 'do I have to go to school now?', even though it is 4pm on a sunday. This is not a one off, he really doesnt seem to have any concept of time. Is this normal for this age or not? When did your dc seem to understand the concept of time?
There is a few other concerns about his behaviour but I am not sure if this is part of the bigger picture or normal.

ds is 10 and he still asks what day it is.
What concerns do you have?

I think it varies hugely on an individual basis.
As a child, I don't think I was aware of time/dates for a long time, certainly until junior school, is the sense of having a timetable IYSWIM. I could read a clock at about age 6, but it didn't mean much to me.

DD has been aware of a weekday/weekend pattern since about 14 mo, and learned the days of the weeks at about 2, and can tell simple times now at 3.6 (ie o'clocks and half pasts). She also has a very good internal sense of what time it is, so can say to me- is it nearly lunch time Mama, even if she isn't hungry.

Sorry- probably not much help.

My dn is 8 and has no idea what day it is and can't tell the time. She's NT, bright but struggles with time.

My 2.2yr old dd knows when it's lunch/dinner for example without cues, understands how to count days (if you tell her Grandma's coming in 3 days she will remember and tell me on the day it's Thursday and it's been 3 days or whatever), gets the difference between yesterday, last week and several weeks and can qualify when things happened and project this to an understanding of when things will happen.

So, I think there's a huge spectrum of 'normal'.

My DD (now 10) has the same acute sense of time as Pooh - when it might be elevenses time or lunchtime. However, when it comes to time for leaving for school or bedtime... no clue. She can read the time perfectly well analogue, digital, 12 or 24 hour as required for exams but despite owning several watches and the house having a clock in nearly every room still asks me what the time is or expresses astonishment when told its time to go upstairs.

Unless she's arranged to go over the road to play with friends at some particular time... ah, then she knows!

very little attention span.

To get him to do something it has to be single instructions and make sure he looking at you. Anything distracts him you dont have a chance.

His favourite pastime is spinning on the spot.

His favourite mode of travelling is spinning, he would even cross a busy road spinning if I let him.

Gets upset by loud noises.

Gets very upset if someone accidentally brushes past him, he seems to have difficulty knowing if someone did it on purpose or by accident.

Has low self esteem, says he does not like himself, scratches, pinches and bites himself.

Very changeable, very loving one minute. A small thing sets of full blown tantum, sreaming, stamping and hitting me. He seems so full of angry, I think he forgets what has upset him he just gets lost in the angry. When he has finished he returns to being a loving child.

Most of his behaviour is what I would expect from a 3 year old. Besides the tantums alot of the things he does eg squeezing toothpaste all around the bathroom I dont feel he is being naughty or for attention. He seems really surprised I might not be happy with him doing that. Its more like it just seems a good idea at the time.

Still puts everything in his mouth.

I dont think he understands that a punishment or 'time out' is connected to what he has done. He seems confused by it.

Sorry you did ask

What do school say Orangehead?

How's he socially?

His teachers acknowledges he has little attention span but says he is just immature. She says not to worry as her dd is similar, but the difference is her dd is 3 not 6. He has been in trouble for biting other children. Not doing as his told, which I dont feel he is doing on purpose but there is too much going on to distract him. He has also been in trouble several times for weeing up a tree in the playground . Again I think he gets confused that at times he is allowed to do that ie in the middle of our walk in the woods but we always stress he has to be discreet. The first time he was very upset to be told off about the weeing, he was sobbing. But has done it again a few more times. But school doesnt seem overly concerned.

Socially, he plays really well with his brother. But not as great with others. Sometimes plays with them then other times goes off and plays alone. A few times I have invited friends round and he has left them playing with his brother and gone to play alone despite him wanting them round. Although he does seem to be improving in this area but only recently. At the school playground he prefers to play with his brother than his own classmates, but his brother is going into juniors in sept and will be in a different playground. So thats a bit worrying I think he will struggle without him

Also at school most weeks he gets 0/10, or 1 or 2 out of ten in his spelling test, despite in the fact he knows them all (he seems really good at spelling). I immediately knew what was happening. Unless there is someone sat with him, saying the word to spell he gets distracted. I went in to chat with his teacher and sure enough in his test book most weeks he has not even attemted to spell a word. The odd weeks he has he got those ones right but not even tried on the other 8 or 9. Again his teacher did not seem concerned by this

Is he a bit awkward when you take him out? Interupts, doesn't get when to stop talking? Doesn't get the rules of games when he plays with others? Stresses in large groups?

Do you think he has ADHD?

No I dont think he has adhd, although some of the things seem to fit. Alot of the symptoms dont. In what way do mean awkward? But yes to your other questions. In constantly needs reminding that everything is not a climbing frame ie the selves in tesco

Anyway I have to go now. But I will check on tomorrow. Thanks

Aspergers, there's alot of traits (symptoms) that match with ADHD, a child doesn't need to have all of the traits of either, just a few of them.

Pop and see the GP for a chat.
Night.

Thanks. He actual had an appointment at hospital yesterday for his stomach problems and I had a chat with consultant and she is going to get the ball rolling.

We often ask about teaching concepts of time on the SN board and moondog, our super-friendly mumsnet-using speech therapist (and she does use these with lots of kids with ASD by the way) recommends the following:

• buy a "timetimer" (google it) - basically a timer which will give him a visible representation of how much time is still to elapse before the next event. make sure you use it with both favourite and non-favourite events so he doesn't associate it with undesirable things!

• buy a nice simple calendar and tick off the days every day without fail for a few weeks then once he has the hang of it start to mark special days such as weekends and birthdays. Moondog says to use one with big spaces and be sure to just tick off days before you start adding events in. I'm just switching to one that's slimline so all the days are on top of each other as my child is very number-aware and gets confused by the numbers written on the squares. Every time he asks about time, take him to the calendar to show him what the position is. Eventually he should be able to go to it himself (and you can help him understand by letting him be the one that puts the stickers on etc)so long as you keep ticking the days off.

The great thing about these ideas is that you're teaching the concept of time itself which is the foundational stuff.

Thankyou lingle, that sounds useful