FLEX Toolkit : Keeping track of time

Key Points

Children with problems concentrating or sustaining attention may struggle to keep track during the day, this might be for short term tasks or for longer term oversight of what is happening during the day. The toolkit student may need encouragement and reminding by using tools to support their time tracking

Plan

Look at the time reminder ideas and suggestions ahead of time and add your own suggestions based on what you have available in the classroom or school
Look at your lesson plans for the week and mark the sessions or activities where you think a time reminder might be helpful for the student (you can use the reminder icons).

Show your student the time reminder ideas and decide with them if they have any ideas they prefer for the different reminders they might need, or any new ideas
Tell the child when you will be reminding them about the time and how many reminders they will get (e.g. when we are doing quiet work for ten minutes I’ll remind you every 3 minutes how long you have left)
Make sure you have the reminder tools you need before the session - a stop-clock, sand-timer, watch, for example. You can use the time reminder checklist to help.
When you are doing the activities you have marked in your plan, use the time reminders with the child. Where possible, it might be useful to have another person in the class while you get used to this so they can keep track of whether the child is finding it helpful
When the child takes note of the reminder and engages with the task at hand use positive reinforcements with them, as soon as you can!

Assess

Use the reflection template to record how you think it has helped (or not helped) to use the time reminders
Consider whether it is better for you to be in control of the reminders, or for the student to have control themselves

Review

After you have used the reminders 3 or 4 times, have a look at the reflection template and see if you want to change anything. For example, does the child need less reminders? More?
Do they appreciate the reminder but it doesn’t seem to help them with their activity or learning?
Talk to their family and child about whether you could do anything differently

Resources

Editable PDFs