The timer goes off on dinner: We stop and go to the next step of serving.
Timer goes off in the morning: we wake up and get ready for the next step of the day work/school.
Timer goes off at work: We stop and go to lunch
Timer goes off at Lunch: We stop and return to our job or school
Timer goes off after 1st period at school: We stop and move to the next class.
Ok I could go on and on about how timers RULE our lives. But I am sure by now you get the idea. See I mentioned at my sons IEP that he uses timers at home to help him know how long he has before he has to transition. This helps lower his anxiety and helps transition him smoothly. He also eats to a timer. This helps him know how long he has to eat so that he doesn’t get distracted and not eat while we are all at the table eating together. He use to get down and run around, eat a bite, run some more, eat a bite, run again, and well you get the picture. Since doing the timer he now joins us at the table.
The school said they didn’t want to use the timer because they didn’t want him to rely on timers. They also said that putting it in his IEP would only make it difficult to take it out when it stopped working. Well who is to say it stops working? And seriously all this talk about helping our kids prepare for life, isn’t our life living from one timed event to another… learning to manage our time is a BIG life skill. Yet they are shooting it down like I am a stupid little mommy. Yet my son is not eating at school because he is distracted in the lunch room and has no sense of time. Yet they still won’t add the dang timer. Well that IEP they were trying to avoid is just gonna have to happen now. Now I am the one calling the meeting to TELL them that teaching my son time management with the use of a timer is a goal I will have added to his IEP.
Why must we as parents lay out the obvious to them? Why must it get ugly before things get done? I just don’t understand. Why do schools preach they want us to be a “TEAM” but yet they really want to keep us out of the school as much as possible? OH well.. it is gonna be what it is and I will just keep pushing to make sure my son gets what it is for him to succeed… I just know that I am not easily steam rolled … please don’t let them steam roll you!
Mommie Done Flipped 
Such a frustrating situation! I spent a lot of time throughout my high school career volunteering in classes that had students with conditions such as ASD and I know that this obviously doesn’t make me an expert however I did learn a lot. One of those things, is that every student has a different routine, and what works for them is what works for them. Situations like this are a great example of some of the cracks in education systems. Often students aren’t thought of as individuals and there isn’t a lot of flexibility towards individual needs. If something as simple as a timer can make such a difference to your child’s ability to learn, I see no reason as to why that shouldn’t be utilized and encouraged.
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Absolutely! They will see it my way soon… 😉
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