Time management is typically a challenge for all ages, yet it is critically important for reaching goals and maintaining a good quality of life.  We can begin helping children to become more aware of time from an early age.

There is evidence that infants actually possess some sense of time.  However, it takes years for children to show signs of a sophisticated sense of time or what French psychologist Sylvie Droit-Volet calls, “explicit time knowledge”.

At preschool age, children are becoming more aware of time and its passing.  However, they will make perceptual errors based on context.  For example, most think that lights that shine brighter last longer. By about age seven, children usually can demonstrate skills involving estimating how long things will take and their sense of time grows stronger from there. We must keep in mind, however, that not every child will advance to these stages chronologically.  Children with attention or focus issues, ADHD, or executive functioning deficits will find sense of time much more challenging.

How Can We Help Children?

Children benefit from adults working to build consistent routines.  If the morning routine and the bedtime routine are the same, or very similar, children will know what to expect and will be able to better manage.  It can be very helpful to create a visual schedule of what tasks will need to be done.  Creating task cards with pictures of the task can be helpful as well.  Involve the child in the creation of a “Task List”.  Depending on their age, you could have them draw pictures of the task, and cut them out.  Each day, the child could put the picture of the completed task in a pocket or folder or on the refrigerator.  A checklist with the tasks written on a sheet for the child to check off may work well for an older child.   Use of white boards for tracking tasks is another option.

Helping with Transitions

Children are seldom in a hurry, but adults tend to be.  One thing we can do to help with that is to be patient.  We can also work on our own time management and try to build in cushions of time so we are not always running late.  If mornings are stressful and getting a child or children ready is chaotic, consider getting up a bit earlier or preparing some things the night before.  When traveling to daycare, school or appointments, build in an extra cushion of time so you are less likely to be yelling, frantic and then driving like a maniac.  Make it a habit to arrive anywhere you need to be at least 15 minutes early. For example, if the start time or appointment is at 8:00, plan to be there by 7:45 at the latest. This habit not only reduces stress for the adult and prevents chaos for the child, it also serves as excellent role modeling for the child.

Getting a child ready to go can be challenging. It will often seem like a child is working against you as they drag their feet every step of the way. Telling a child to “hurry up” isn’t usually very effective.  They don’t feel the sense of urgency we do.  If you have a child with any type of executive functioning or other developmental issues, you may need some extra patience when communicating what needs to happen next.  Some tips that can be helpful are:

• Have the child make eye contact with you when you are talking to them
• Confirm that the child has accurately heard what you are saying
• Give the child a head’s up and let them know that “In five minutes we are going to get ready to get in the car” or “In five minutes we are going to be leaving the playground”

Have you overloaded yourself or your child?  We are seeing that many families try to pack too much activity into a week. How many afterschool activities is the child involved in?  If life seems extremely chaotic with the current amount of activity, it may be time to step back and consider cutting back.

Prioritizing – It is easy to let other things in life take priority. Teaching children how to prioritize is an important strategy for health. 

We can set a good example by demonstrating and telling a child that we often need to do some kind of work before we do fun things. 

Examples:

• We need to get cleaned up and dressed before we have breakfast.
• We need to clean off the table and rinse the dishes before we can play.
• We need to do our work/chores before we use technology.

Use of Incentives and “Chunking”

Completing priorities first can be a challenge for both adults and children.  Even adults who have big projects or tasks to complete can use incentives to assist with productivity.   For children with short attention spans, chunking down homework or projects into smaller chunks of time and using incentives can be very helpful.

• Each day afterschool the child can do XYZ fun activity after they have completed X problems or completed X minutes of homework.

Adults can set similar incentives. 

• After you complete X part of the project or work for X minutes, you can do XYZ fun activity.

Time Tools

Help children use tools to become more aware of time and to create their own time management.

Calendars – A calendar is a terrific visual for allowing a child to follow time day by day.  They can write events and activities on the calendar.

Clocks – We are finding that fewer and fewer children are familiar with face clocks, however, they can be terrific educational tools.  As children get older, they can watch the second, minute and hour hands and see how they move with time. 

Timers – Timers can be helpful with awareness of time.  They can also be great for caregivers who can use it as an objective timekeeper.  When you tell a child they can play for 10 more minutes, you can set the timer and when the timer goes off, the child knows that 10 minutes is up.  As they get older and are using technology, there are apps for time management as well.

Lists – List making can also be very helpful.  Some children are very concerned with time and scheduling and “what are we going to do for the rest of the day or the next day” Teachers often list their daily agenda on the board, which is very helpful.  Parents can write items for a child or have the child help make a list of “priorities” and “fun things” to include for the day.