Time question

Post Reply New Topic

Question for people on the spectrum: Do you find it difficult to read a clock with hands and, if so, can you describe why? Related question: Do you find it difficult keeping track of time? Thanks all.

I had a hard time with it in elementary school, but I adapted by comparing it to a digital clock.

Mostly I relied on multiples of 5, I didn't know offhand that the 6 meant :30..

I used math to adapt. I suppose.

There were some posts on this subject a few weeks ago;

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt192570.html

I find it easier to read digital time out loud, that's easier to translate into words, but either type tells me what I want to know equally well if I don't have to put it in words.

For example on an analogue clock (with hands) I know I must leave when the minute hand gets to 8, so a glance shows me that hand is at 4, from which I guage is that enough time to do x, y & z or not. I don't look at the analogue clock and verbally think "I have 20 minutes", or "it's twenty past, I have to leave at twenty to". I would need to think again before expressing it that way to someone else.

It's just the time represented by that gap vs what I have to do in that time.

More of an equation, and whether it balances.

Keeping track of time can be difficult. My ADHD son had terrible trouble with it as a younger child, could read a clock, but found time varied a lot when he didn't look at a clock. 20 minutes could feel like 2 hours and vice versa on a daily basis. He sometimes accused me of changing the clocks!
I explained it to him as sometimes your brain works faster than other times and that affects how fast time seems to pass.
My dad used to call me "little miss wait a minute", but my minutes were very long That may have been more to do with hating to switch from doing one thing to doing another, I don't remember.
I actually believe time must pass a bit more quickly at some times than others because it does seem so real, its hard to conclude its an illusion. I am late for work 90% of days, but only by 5 or 10 minutes.

Einstein famously discovered time is a variable, possibly this was not so strange an idea to him as to his NT contempories.

No on both counts

no problem at all, but I'm obsessed with time. I've got clocks everywhere denoting different timezones and my watch is preferably the most complicated in the store.

I have incredible trouble with dates. It is like a void in my cognition.

It is easy enough, for the most part, to deal with. I just have to write everything down for future events on specific dates and track recurring events on specific dates. I use preprogrammed reminders in my smart phone to alert me of impending dates of importance. But I couldn’t tell you what my anniversary was, or my sister’s birthday, or anything like that without referencing some document. Even after reading it I will very quickly lose the information…so the referencing of dates has become ritual for me.

But if separated from continual reinforcement (multiple times daily) I inevitably lose track of the date, if not reinforced by some new source of the current date, within several hours I can be off by several days. If not reinforced for a few days, I can lose track of the month...or sometimes even the year.

Like I said, this is for me a void in cognition. But I am fairly good at working around it by simply referencing reminders like computer displays, email, my phone, sometimes calendars etc.

This has gotten me into trouble in the workplace semi-recently. I wrote a date on a form that was incorrect, and almost lost my job. (It's a big no-no in my industry) And I have to try to be extra vigilant because I am especially prone to this sort of mistake.

This is one of the only deficits I have that no amount of cognitive training or personal efforts has made any difference for…and believe you me, I have tried.


Edit;

Ironically, my perception of what time it is, even without reference to any time telling device, is remarkably accurate. I just "know" what time it is...I've never been off by more than a minute or two.

Never really had such problems, apart from when I was much younger, probably.

It takes me a little extra time, having to translate the positions of the hands into a number that means something.

It took me a long time to learn to read a clock when I was a kid. I still find it difficult to figure out the hour when the minute hand is nearer the half-hour.

I have always liked Dr. Manhattan's perception of time. "My father was a watchmaker. He abandoned it when Einstein discovered that time is relative. I would only agree that a symbolic clock is as nourishing to the intellect as a picture of oxygen to drowning man."

No, to the first question. Yes, to the second. I have trouble keeping track of time. I'm often late, although I'm trying hard to do better on that one. Time just doesn't seem to exist to me.

I had problems with that when I was very young, though not now.

Not at all. In fact, I have to visualize an analogue clock when looking at digital ones.

As for converting anolog time to words I did when I was younger. This was because I broke the clock in to tenths, so I would answer time questions with a tenth befor six for example. It works well for me now because flat rate here is mesured in tenths of an hour. Time of day when not buisy is really good but when buisy no clue at all. Doesnt help that I can't wear a watch. As to weeks months years I dont know without looking. I was taken out for dinner, I wanted to crawl under the table when they came out singing and I didnt realise it was my birthday till half way thrue the song.

When I see a clock face, I know right away what time it is. The picture is the time. It just takes a moment to convert the clock face picture into the numbers as words that I should say to tell someone else what time it is.

I find clocks with hands on them to be easy to read. I think when I was really young it may have been a problem as it it with many children. I've never had much trouble keeping track of time.