Functional@Home: Time Management for Children
Visual timers and visual schedules are wonderful resources to assist in promoting children’s independence and teaching good time-management habits. Coupling your verbal instructions with visual ones makes the communication that much clearer. And breaking larger tasks into smaller chunks makes a daunting task more manageable.
Being a parent, caregiver, or teacher means not only managing your own time, but helping the children in your care become more independent with their time management. If you have children in your home, you teach children, or you are struggling to stay on task yourself, visual timers and visual schedules could help you. Here are a few tips for how I manage time and schedules in our household, as well as in clinical settings and client’s homes.
Visual Timers
Countdown clock timers, online visual timers, time trackers, and sand timers are all examples of visual timers. In my home and when working with clients, I use them to help us stay on task. For example, if there is a 20-minute homework task to be done, the visual timers vanishing time can motivate the child to get the job done. When the allocated time for the task is over and successfully completed, the next activity can begin.
Visual timers are just that: visual.
Even if the child is not able to read time, they will be able to see the movement of time as the colour on the dial disappears or the sand falls. Watching the time disappear is a far more concrete and tangible way to understand how time is passing than using a regular clock or alarm. They are simple to use and easy to understand.
Visual timers are also useful during transitions, especially between preferred and less preferred activities. Instead of simply saying “you have x minutes left to watch TV,” try to set a visual timer to reinforce your verbal cues. I find it takes away some of the burden as a parent or caregiver to be the “fun police” - the child or teen now has a tangible, visual metric for how much time they spend on activities and tasks. “I’m setting the timer for 20 minutes. When the time runs out, we need to turn the TV off, put shoes on and head out.”
Lastly, if you or the child needs some head space, a break, or a “mental time-out”, a visual timer might be the tool that works for you. Set it for 10min and allow yourself or the child time to re-group: whether that looks like taking a task-break, doing jumping jacks, listening to some music, or recalibrating in a calm space with some sensory fidgets or sensory tools. Taking a time-out is always worth your time.
Here’s a useful video from Time Timer about visual timers:
Time Timer: Visual Timer for Visual Learners (youtube.com)
Visual Schedules
Schedules are another great visual tool. Like visual timers, they help to give children and teens a greater awareness of time. They are also useful in breaking tasks into smaller chunks or goals, that can be more manageably competed. Most children benefit from visual schedules and timers around the age of two years old, but ultimately you as a parent, caregiver, or teacher will know when these visual resources might be a good fit for the child.
Picture Schedules
If the child is not a reader, using a picture schedule can be very beneficial to keep them on task and help them understand what comes next. I found a magnetic visual schedule very useful for my young children during Covid. It helped to structure their morning daily routines, from getting dressed to helping out with activities in the home, like tidying up the play area.
Written Schedules
If the child reads, written schedules are a wonderful tool. Find out what system works for the child. Maybe its a whiteboard schedule, or a desktop planner, or a wall calendar. Using different colored pens or makers can help organize a events and draw attention to priority tasks. If the child’s school does not provide a homework notebook or activity schedule, consider implementing this system yourself. Visually displaying tasks on a calendar or schedule can help keep the task-train on track!
Conclusion
Consider adding these resources to your parent, caregiver, or teacher toolbox if you feel like time is running away from you:
Visual countdown timer
Online visual timers
Sand timer
Picture schedule
Written schedule (whiteboard, planner, calendar)
Feel free to contact me for more information or product links.