‘No idea of time’: Parents report differences in autistic children’s behaviour relating to time in a mixed-methods study

Abstract

An emerging body of research suggests that temporal processing may be disrupted in autistic children, although little is known about behaviours relating to time in daily life. In the present study, 113 parents of autistic and 201 parents of neurotypical children (aged 7–12 years) completed the It’s About Time questionnaire and open-ended questions about their child’s behaviour relating to time. The questionnaire scores were lower in the autistic compared with the neurotypical group, suggesting that behaviours are affected. Three key themes were identified using thematic analysis: autistic children had problems with temporal knowledge, learning about concepts relating to time, such as how to use the clock and language around time. There were differences in prospection with autistic children having more difficulties with how they thought about the future and prepared themselves for upcoming events. The final theme, monotropism, described how autistic children viewed their time as precious so they could maximise engagement in their interests. The present study indicates that behaviours relating to time can have a considerable impact on the daily lives of autistic children and their families. Further work exploring the development of temporal cognition in autism would be valuable for targeting effective educational and clinical support. Lay abstract Many everyday activities require us to organise our behaviours with respect to time. There is some evidence that autistic children have problems with how they perceive and understand time. However, little is currently known about this, or the ways in which behaviours related to time are impacted in daily life. In this study, 113 parents of autistic children and 201 parents of neurotypical children completed a questionnaire and open-ended questions about their child’s behaviour relating to time. Questionnaire scores were lower in the autistic group compared with neurotypicals, which suggests that behaviours relating to time are affected in autistic children. The open-ended responses further confirmed that the autistic children struggled with time and that this impacted on them and their family. Three key themes were identified. Theme 1: autistic children have problems with learning about concepts relating to time such as telling the time from a clock and using words to describe time (hours, minutes, etc.) appropriately. Theme 2: autistic children think about the future differently. Planning and working under time pressure were described as a problem. Theme 3: autistic children have strong interests which take up a lot of their attention and worrying about having sufficient time to pursue these interests causes anxiety. This research indicates that behaviours related to time can have a considerable impact on the lives of autistic children and that targeted support may be required.

Time perception in autistic adults: Interval and event timing judgments do not differ from nonautistics.

“…Although a generalized timing impairment was originally theorized, a more specific characterization of any differences in timing in autism is valuable in advancing understanding of the specific cognitive mechanisms affected. Recent qualitative work suggests differences in behavior relating to time can cause issues in daily life for many autistic people (Poole et al, 2021; Vogel et al, 2019), so improving understanding of timing processes should help point toward the development of targeted support to ameliorate problems.…”

Time perception of individuals with subthreshold autistic traits: the regulation of interpersonal information associations

“…Researchers are more likely to emphasize changes in social communication rather than in basic cognitive function for individuals with high autistic traits, such as time perception. Many everyday activities require us to organize our behaviors with respect to time [18], and time processing is also the basis of many advanced cognitive functions, such as attention, memory, emotion, and language. This is crucial for an individual's cognitive development [19].…”

“…Self-reports of individuals with ASD, as well as reports from relatives or physicians who have frequent contact with them, suggest that they have changed their time perception in their daily lives [22]. Using a questionnaire and open-ended questions, Poole et al (2021) found that behaviors related to time can have a considerable impact on the daily lives of children with autism [18]. Vogel et al (2019) reported a distinct pattern of interrupted-time experience from qualitative data acquired from 26 adults with high-functioning ASD [23].…”

Time perception in autistic adults: Interval and event timing judgements do not differ from non-autistics

“…Autistic people, their caregivers and clinicians have reported that the perception and understanding of time are affected (see Boucher, 2001;Poole, Gowen, Poliakoff, & Jones, 2021). The 'temporal deficit hypothesis' (Allman & DeLeon, 2009;Allman & Falter, 2015;Allman, 2011) proposes that differential maturation of timing processes across childhood development in autism leads to impaired duration and relative timing perception.…”