Invited Lecture: It’s about time! What has time got to do with Autism & Speech Language Clinicians? A Mini - Tutorial

The importance of Time Concept in human existence is ‘ancient history’ celebrated in the Book of Ecclesiastes: To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. Indeed, our biological time sensitive mechanisms are literally carved into our biology and neurology on a molecular level. However, time in human consciousness is not the time indicated by clocks: time is a subjective reality in our psychological makeup due to the complex properties of time, and its conformity to the Relativity of Simultaneity. Nonetheless, it needs to be anchored to physical time to function effectively in society. This requires time related skills to measure passage and duration of time such as: clock reading, using calendars and timelines, measuring time intervals, etc. Accurate reading of time, an adaptive life skill, is imperative for function in society and social activities. Indeed, clock reading is at the centre of instruction of time concept in primary education as it reflects the complexity of time construct in general. It is often measured in children by clock drawings, a cognitive integrative skill with errors pointing to neuroanatomical differences best explained by the Theory of Underconnectivity. The aims of this mini-tutorial are: 1. show results of clock drawings by a wide age-range group of students with Autism, 2. demonstrate the appropriateness of applying adult errors schema to their drawings, 3. suggest use of the Time Knowledge Questionnaire for children that assesses conventional time and estimative time respectively, often neglected aspects in intervention with clinical populations.