I have a friend who has a wonderful, brilliant and talented daughter who cannot get a grasp on the passage of time. It’s really nothing to joke about… she knows how to tell time, and knows that it takes time to get ready.. such as to school, or to go out, etc..but somehow time always gets away from her.
She was a low birthweight baby who’s birth mother probably abused drugs and alcohol, but there is nothing on record of that. This seems to be the one gap her family cannot close.
I am wondering if anyone else has had issues like that, or if anyone else can help me brainstorm ideas on how to help this child. She’s a 10th grader and this “disablity” is starting to cost her friends (no one wants to wait around for her to arrive anywhere)
Re: remediating time disablitiy
It’s not all that uncommon. If you are very focused on what you do — especially the kind of hyper focus that is found in some ADD types — there is no such thing as time; that would requires stepping away mentally from what you are immersed in (whether it’s getting ready in the morning or painting a masterpiece).
For getting ready — my Triathlon watch from Timex had a timer that counted down and beeped, then start again automatically. My only (but serious) gripe with it is that it goes off for the full alarm time and two beeps would be plenty!! I also had to try to re-figure out how to get it to that setting if something happened so I had to set it up again. I’d set it for four minutes so every four minutes I’d be reminded to check the time (or get back on task). And I started being able to figure out how long it would take to do things (I’d race the clock).
I replaced it with an “expedition” watch after a little bike wreck (K-Mart didn’t have a Triathlon one in stock), and if this one has that setting I really can’t figure it out — but it will count down. I just have to start it over again.
Re: remediating time disablitiy
Are there any other issues?? My daughter has NLD and one thing that comes with it is that she has no idea whether we have just driven 5miles or 500 because she has no idea how long it’s been unless we specifically point out the time when we start and then again when we end. She is my stepdaughter and it is a 70mile trip on Fridays when my husband picks her up, this is a trip she has made for almost 6 years and she did not know how far (time wise) it was from her Mom’s to our house.
There are many other things that go along with NLD though. When she is older we will have to get her a palm pilot with an hurly alarm and appointment reminder alarm. They have not given me any “magical” cure to fix this problem.
How about a wristwatch with an alarm button? My daughter uses (11th gr now) hers in situations where she might not remember to look at her watch- soccer games etc. The alarm isn’t hard to use.
Robin