Time concept problems in children?

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I was told that when I was little, I didn't understand the difference between yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Around age 6 or 7 I had started to understand it. I assume this isn't normal in children, but I wouldn't know - I avoid them like the plague.

Anyone have children who have had problems with this?

Edit - minor typo!

Don't know, but apparently when I was about 4 I didn't know what over, under, beside, in, out, etc. ... wow, I must've been a ret*d or something.

Get a calender without pictures and one that isn't too small. Then use many examples that you really would use so the child would hear them being used... I've got the day off tomorrow.
Using time units may be relevant I think

Is is possible your parents just thought you did not know what they meant. I had the same assumption about my aspie son when he was around that age. Go in the living room and get the paper on the table beside the chair, only translated as far as 'go in the living room' to him. I thought he did not know his prepositions and started drilling him with flash cards and placing objects. Turns out he knew them fine and it was more an issue of auditory processing and following a sequence of directions.

My son and I both have trouble with time concepts. I am the worst. I have a bad habit of saying things like...recently, not long ago, or the other day...when trying to verbalize recent memories. I never know when anything really happened. My husband cracks up when I say...the other day...about something that happened this morning.

LOL Claire, my son's daycare teacher told me yesterday she told him to wash his hands in the sink and put on his underwear, and when she came back he was washing his underwear in the sink.

am still have that problem and only know when it's night or day judging by when it's light or dark,also constantly need reminding what day it is due to days meaning nothing.
dont know whether am have it as part of autism,or as part of multiple learning disability.

Concept of time and particularly time passing is difficult for a lot of people with ASD, it's why timers and visual timetables are useful. Also knowing where the beginning and end of a task is, can be troublesome for some.

My son is six and not yet diagnosed. If you tell him we are doing something next week or friday or whatever he always says "tomorrow?" and we say "no" and he says "the day after tomorrow?" and we say "No" and he says "the day after tomorrow?"....this will go on forever until we say "we will talk about it later". We have tried to show him the calendar and what not but he just cant grasp the idea. We've just started informing him of things the day before. Also if I tell him to go get his shoes on so we can go he will go in his room and put on his shoes and stay there.....well sometimes he wont even put on his shoes LOL.

Use a visual time table for your son- something like this
http://www.thinkinpictures.com.au/Visua ... ckage.html

One of the keys to getting it working with small children is to have each item with velcro on the back so you can remove it when you are done.

Also.. initally do not have too much on it

Start with photos + Text move to drawings + text and finally text alone once he is reading ( if he is not already )
Ask the school to use the same thing in the class room.

Start with only displaying one day at a time with just two or three key items on it, then gradually working up to today and tomorrow and then this week and also slowly increasing the number of items you display. If he is the kind of child that is confused by too much visual information keep it simple and uncluttered.

Good luck

Thank you for the link. We do use a lot of visual aids or PECS for my 3 1/2 year old Autie and I think my son might benefit from a schedule and visuals as well.

I thought timing concept meant how long it be till you get something done like my ex tells one of his neighbors when he be done fixing their car. He says he be done in three hours but instead it takes him four hours. he told me that was timing concept.


Before, I thought it was knowing what time of day it is without looking at the time.

My mother believed I thought, said, was ignorant, of things, when I DIDN'T or WASN'T. That is true of me when I was VERY young, and true of me even last WEEK! And SOMETIMES it takes me DAYS to figure out what could have been twisted SO much! And there are things the DSM says, that some HERE believe are similar misunderstandings. Sometimes, I will ask about what a person means because a sentence will have like 5 possible meanings, and they will, believing I don't know simple English, explain EVERYTHING but the part that is VAGUE! Frankly, *I* have to reconcile such things.

Most kids, and I mean NT as well, don't have a firm grip on time until close to 8. Nobody gets very excited if kids don't have over/under etc down until around 6. That's just *cough* normal development.

Well said Magique. I also thought the same too about young children not knowing time and knowing what "today" "tomorrow" and "yesterday" meant.

I couldn't tell time till I was nine. I couldn't learn it in school so my mother finally taught me when I was nine. It didn't take me long to learn.

I did not know what afternoon was or evening and I didn't know what "tomorrow" meant or "yesterday" till I was seven. I think I learned what afternoon meant when I was eight and evening.

When I was six, I thought my mother was going crazy because she kept sending my brothers and I to bed when it was still daylight. She said the sun was staying up too long. I didn't believe her. I was in school and told my teacher about it and she said my mother isn't going crazy and the sun really is staying up long.
I thought night time meant bedtime and day time meant you stay up so I hated going to bed when it was still daytime. She had never sent me to bed when it still be light out so I thought she was going crazy. But the problem was I didn't go to school full time before, I went to afternoon school so my mother let me stay up late and then when I was six, I was in school full day so my mother sent my brothers and I both to bed to make it the same for the all of us. It was so I wouldn't get confused because they got to stay up and I didn't.
Back then I didn't understand about days getting longer or shorter. I thought it stayed the same all year till I was maybe eight because I can remember my mother telling me the days were getting longer.

I probably didn't get it either. My son doesn't get it but eventually he'll understand the concept. It's too abstract.