Some aspects of life can be confusing for kids with ASD, below we explore the topic of explaining dates to an autistic child.
The motivation for this article came from the run in to Christmas. For those that celebrate in the UK we have a tradition called advent calendars.
If you’re unaware what they entail, an advent calendar is a rectangle box containing chocolate, with a twist.
Scattered around the face of the advent calendar there are the numbers 1-24. Children then on each morning open the corresponding number for that day.
Why is this relevant to explaining dates to autistic children? Well for us it really helped our son understand the concept.
Autism and understanding dates
When you think about it, the dates in each month are quite random.
Feel free to explain in the comments as to why but it’s always puzzled me in terms of why some months have more days than others.
Picture for an autistic child who may like things linea in nature and them wrapping their head around February having 28 days and the rest having 30 or 31.
Don’t even get me started on leap years.
But for our son, counting up each day through December really helped him. Towards the end he fully understood that today was the 17th of December for example.
He even would look at the regular calendar on the wall and confirm to himself throughout the day.
Well we are going to jump all over this new understanding and go on to develop him into knowing his and other people’s birthdays.
What can parents do now?
Unless by chance you are reading this article at the start of December, you won’t have an advent calendar to hand.
Instead however you could add a simple calendar to their room. From there, each morning you can tick off another day, or circle the one you are on.
Knowing autistic children’s fondness for routine and order you could also make a note of what you’re doing that day.
Be sure to circle or put notes in place for birthdays and big events. They will really help in your child grasping the concept of certain things happening on certain days.
Summary – Explaining dates to an autistic child
A lot of concepts we take for granted can be confusing to an autistic child. Things like time and dates especially can seem like miles away from their level of understanding.
Using a tactic like a calendar in their room or a countdown to a birthday or religious event can be a game changer however.
Speaking personally I was amazed at quite how quickly our son grasped the concept.
It is now a game for us to attempt years, but that is probably a blog post for the future.
Best of luck everyone.
Any tips or ideas?
We would love to hear from you if you have got any techniques or ideas for our readers to try.
Be sure to leave a comment if any of the above has helped or if you have any ideas we can add to this article.
Also be sure to search for any other articles you might find helpful.
Try for example searching below for topics like ‘meltdown’ or ‘communication’.
