The Clock

We had a teacher conference with Troy’s teacher and the Dean of Students last week. The teacher had sent us an email, stating that she’d noticed Troy seemed a bit lost in the classroom.

So, in an effort to help him learn better time management, I decided to get a clock like the one they had in the class. It’s like a giant timer that has a purple color wheel to show how much time is remaining. The kids can see the color slowly disappearing as the time counts down, and they know how much time is left.

I figured we could start using it at meal times to mimic the amount of time he has to eat lunch, since running out of time was his biggest excuse for not eating his food. After he got used to it for eating, then I figured we could use it for other things, so he started to learn how long time is when we tell him to wait or that we need food leave at a certain time.

So far, we have had mixed success with it at meal times. He is more likely to finish on time if we make it a game to “beat the clock,” or if him getting a dessert is contingent on him beating the clock. He is less likely to finish on time if he’s watching TV. When the TV is on, he is so distracted that he doesn’t even notice the clock. We end up telling him constantly that he’s running out of time, so it defeats the purpose. If we talk to him instead of letting him watch TV, then we have mixed success, as he might finish because he’s less distracted, but he might also not finish because he’s protesting at the loss of his TV time.

I feel like I’m just going to have to set the clock, not say a word about him eating or running out of time, and then just pick his food up when the time runs out. That’s exactly what they do at school (minus the visual clock), which is why he never finishes. The issue is that my wife is so obsessed with him not eating that she can’t help but vocalize his lack of food intake…constantly. So, I would have to keep her quiet about it as well for it to be successful. Something has to change, though. It’s not working this way.