Understanding the concept of time - adolescent daughter
Hi, we have two children with higher functioning autism. Our son (13) has always had a great grasp of time, however our daughter (11) is still struggling quite a bit. She's nearly at grade level for reading, but math, numbers, amounts, and time are where most of her support at school (IEP) are focused.
For example, she has great difficulty understanding what "1 hour" means in the context of how long something lasts, or that an hour after 1:30 PM would be 2:30 PM...or that when it is 7:58 PM, it will be 8:00 PM in 2 minutes. Morning, mid-day, evening also make little sense to her, and what the cooresponding times for these periods would be.
Her frustration has meant that sitting down as we try to review a clock, pictures, videos, etc are met with upset and anger. She has expressed how she wants to understand but cannot...and now that she's in the 5th grade, she is beginning to understand the social pressures to fit-in with her peers who do understand this very basic concept.
I'd love to hear any tips, apps, games, videos or any other visuals you have used to get over this hurdle. Thank you.
Posted Sep 3, 2025, 6:22 PM UTC