Time

[ceecee]

Hope one of you guys can help.Does anyone know if people with aspergers have trouble with time..I wonder if they are so caught up in themselves and their interests that time passes them by.What does every one else think?

Edited December 3, 2005 by ceecee

[KarenT]

I guess it's possible, Ceecee. James has problems with the concept of time being finite, he doesn't see that if he uses it doing one thing then it's gone forever and he can't do the other thing that he also wanted to do. Even if we explain to him clearly that (eg) he can do X before tea and Y after, but not both one way or the other, he can't grasp it and gets into a paddy if he wants to change activities halfway through.

 

On a similar note with time, although he can read the time very well he will forget how to do it if he doesn't wear his watch for a few days. We have to regularly remind him to check the time so that he will keep that ability in his head. I think we've taught him time three times now - he learns it very quickly and easily but forgets it just the same.

 

Karen

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[lsw146]

B is just begining to be able to read time but I don't think it means much to her. Good example but maybe something to do with language as well is when B asks if she can do something and we say "well there is only five minutes" we have to remeember to say this means she hasn't got long enough to complete her choice of activity. even then if she is set on doing something time holds no relevance.

Does that make sense?

 

She does sometimes think things have happened very recently when in fact it was ages ago but hese are usually times when she remembers being anxious.

[Guest flutter]

m who is nearly 11 cannot tell time, i get stories that obvioulsy happened quite a while ago. she told a friend a very complex stroy about bruv that frined thought was recent and really was 6 weeks previous. She also has a mixed idea of tomorrow and yesterday.

Edited July 18, 2005 by flutter

[littlenemo]

This is one I've always had a problem with. Everyone knows there are 3 types of time - standard time, waiting room time (when time passes really slowly because there's nothing to do) and fun time (which races past).

What happens is that you remember the fun time and some of the standard time, but forget the waiting room time. This seems to be fairly universal, but the problem arises when you try to piece together ther past. There are huge gaps where nothing much happened, interspersed with brief spurts of fun time. NT brains seem to keep a record of how much time has passed, even if they can't remember everything that happened during that time.

For me, and I suspect your brother, long-term memory problems mean you're left with no point of reference to fix the fun time to. So your brother got a call from you at some point in the past, but if there was nothing going on at the time and no references to specific events, it just floats in some indeterminate point in the past, and any attempt to work out when it happened ends up as a best guess. And if life has been uneventful, the guess always tends to be more recent than it really was.

 

This, I suspect, is one of the reasons AS folk like predictable routine - it forms a framework to help place memories. Since giving up 9 to 5 work and becoming a freelance, my concept of time over the last 3 years(I think) has definitely deteriorated.

 

So this might be a solution (if it is a problem for either of you) - make the calls a routine (first Sunday of the month for instance). That way he'll always know when the last call was.

 

Luckily I don't suffer from it in the short term, so don't have the 4.30-8.00 problem you mention. My problems start as soon as I go to sleep. I tested this once by staying up 3 days and night and had no problems remembering what had happened for the entire time. After a good night's sleep however...

 

hope that helps

 

nemo

[Zemanski]

Com and time - notes to LSA - Y8

 

time involves many concepts

 

linear time - one thing comes after another, no problem with this

 

parallel time - several or many things can happen at once, no problem

 

cyclical time - night becomes day becomes night ..... this baffled Com not because he didn't understand the cycles but because they conflicted with his linear thinking and the maths concepts he was developing at the same time. How can you have 24 hours then suddenly start again at 0? What is the point?

 

relative time - people experience time flowing at different rates (see Nemo's post) and this is experience is altered by feelings, levels of activity, etc. Com could handle the idea that time seems to go quicker when you are having fun but not that different people can experience time flowing at different rates from himself when doing the same activity. Serious problems with this due probably to typical AS lack of theory of mind. Funnily enough he had no problem with the theory of relativity by about 8 years old but personal relativity is a completely different ball game.

 

language of time - still gets this wrong, misses a lot of the conventions like you can say quarter past or 5 past but not 15 past - it simply isn't logical

 

duration - linked to relative time. Com has little understanding of how long a minute or an hour really are and cannot estimate how long something might take or has taken. He seems to think that an hour is exactly what he judges it to be because, of course, everyone experiences time the same way he does (he has problems with estimation generally and hates the inaccuracy of it)

 

time as property - Com has very strong feelings about this. His time should be his to decide what to do with therefore asking him to do something he doesn't like or has no interest in is plain theft He even resents sleeping sometimes and his main complaint about homework is that he is losing his own time.

 

memory - Com was convinced for a very long time that it was impossible to remember anything that happened in the first half of your life. i.e. on your second birthday you can't remember anything before the age of one and on your fortieth you can't remember anything before 20! He was convinced we were lying when we talked about our childhoods which caused loads of problems for a while but he's been proved wrong so many times now that he's had to give up this idea

 

complex stuff, time

 

Zemanski

[eddie]

time.... my bug at the mo!!!! not only does he have no idea what time is 5 mins? yeaterday tomorrow? all those things but also simple things like time of day, has no idea when its lunchtime or t time!!! but then i get told not to worry about it at school cos all chilfren have this difficulty, but then 2 weeks later they are testing them on how to tell the time!!! how annoying. but i do worry that he has no idea of what time of day it is!!!

[Suze]

I can relate to this, my son can,t distinguish how much time has past and continually asks when will it be ? when will it be?....He is 10 and still cannot tell the time.Past present and future seem to be happening all at once for him.When you think it , " it " has past so how can there be a present?It,s all very tenuous and hard to explain to him.His logic is too logical for me .

[Mother in Need]

Suze, I can relate very much to that!

My 11 year old son certainly has no sense of time, thinks lunch time is supper time and vice versa, believes things happened yesterday even though it was earlier in the same day, etc. Sometimes he can suss it out, but certainly not when he is confused.

We often use a timer so he can keep track of it; but then he becomes really rigid with it which doesn't help.

~Also, he has such complex theories re time that I won't even try to repeat it. Or understand it. Definitely way too logical!

[ceecee]

Zemanski - just wanted to add people with as havebig issues with his time being their own and woe betide you if you happen to phone when they are enjoying their time on their own.I would go so far as to say their time on their own is one of the most important things in the world to them.they never gets bored or lonely or miss having company, but I guess thats aspergers for you.Nice to hear that you have the same sort of thing with your son.

Edited December 3, 2005 by ceecee

[fairies72]

Hi

My daughter also struggles with time.I'm having particular trouble at the mo with it being light so late.She insists it isn't bedtime.Often asks if its morning or afternoon and has to be told when the weekend is here or will be packing her bag for school.

Lisa x

[smiley]

my little boy definately struggles with time - any kind of sequencing really. days of the week, etc - he doesn't understand that morning means breakfast and will demand lunch at 7pm, even when he's had his dinner! we initially thought he may be having petite mal fits' - would explain the disorentation...but he's not, just one part of the puzzle he struggles with. each aspergers different i guess xx

[BuntyB]

We also have this problem! When I tell the kids it is 5 minutes until we have to set off to school, what I really mean is that if you need the loo, have to find a book, put on your shoes, NOW is the time to do it. My son thinks he has time to play a game on his playstation!

 

I told my 11 year old tonight that she needed to be ready for her leavers disco in 10 minutes, but as she had pen marks on her hand and cheek, suggested she wash them off. Mistake! Five minutes later, I found her disco clothes on the floor where she had discarded them- she was wallowing in the bath with her hair soaked! When she realised she was going to be late, she panicked and flapped for ages while I tried to dress her and get her hair dried, then she'd lost her shoes.

 

I have to say though that all was forgiven when I picked her up nearly 15 minutes late. I was playing a game with the other children and lost all track of time.

[MARGOT10]

My five year old is under assesment and time is a big issue in our house.If you say wait a minute or in a minute she will say what now,if i say tomorrow she will say what later,i explain by sleep.i.e you go to bed and when you wake up.The waiting for things in the day is a no go she will hound you its easier to get what she wants then and there.I know this is proberbly wrong but until we get some help its the only i can survive the day without screaming.

[KarenT]

Margot, have you tried using a timer? That way you can set it for one minute, five minutes or whatever you agree on, then it will buzz when the time's up and give her a signal that it's time to stop whatever she's doing. It's worked wonders here at Thirlaway Towers.

 

Karen

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