Timers can be a useful tool in your special needs ministry toolbox!  Studies have shown that individuals with cognitive disabilities often struggle with the concept of time.  

Time is such an abstract concept, and using a visual timer can help individuals have a better understanding of elapsed time and how much time is left with a concrete visual.  

Ideas for church use:

Use visual timers to help ease transition times.  

• You could say “in 5 minutes we are going to read our Bible story!  When you hear the timer sound go off, please clean up!”  Start the timer and show the students how much time is remaining.

• Give a one-minute warning and point towards the visual timer so that students are aware that the time is almost up.  

• Use a visual timer for playground time.  If you have students who have a difficult time transitioning back to the classroom after outside play time, take a visual timer outside with you and show it to the student several times throughout playtime to give them an idea of how much time is left.

Another easy timer tip:

• Use the timer on your phone or an ipad

If you don’t have a visual timer with you, let students know that you are starting a timer on your phone.  Tell the students to be listening for the sound on your phone and that it means time to line up, etc. You can take your phone around and show students how much time is left throughout the activity they are doing. 

A great app to use is TimeTimer.  It has a similar look and feel to physical visual timers. 

A Tip

Timers are great to use to prepare students for transitions that you have control over in the classroom.  A word of caution: I do not recommend using a visual timer to indicate the end of a service if you do not have full control over the exact time parents will pick up their child.  If a timer goes off and a child has been told that their parents or caregivers will be there to pick them up when it ends, and their parents are not there at that exact time, it can cause frustration, cause distrust, and/or trigger a meltdown/problem behavior.  

Use timers in combination with visual schedules to give an idea of what has already been completed and what is left to do so that students know what is happening next after the timer goes off. 

Want more ideas for visual timers? Check out these great ideas at The Autism Helper!