The Hidden Skills Your Child Needs to Stop Running Late

The ability to feel or perceive time is something many families struggle with. Your child might ask you if it has been thirty minutes when it has only been two minutes since they last checked. Or they lose track of time easily and even with reminders it still becomes a rush to get out the door.

This is very common when executive function skills are lagging. Kids live in the here and now, which is why so many of them are late, forget deadlines, or underestimate how long a task will take. They are not trying to frustrate you. They simply cannot feel time the way adults do.

Understanding time is actually made up of several different skills. When one or more of these skills are still developing, everyday tasks become much harder. Here are the five key time-related skills your child is working on:

Time estimation
Your child asks every two minutes how much time has passed because they cannot sense it internally.

Time horizon
This skill helps kids understand how quickly a task or event is approaching. Kids who struggle with this are often labeled procrastinators even though it is really a future-thinking challenge.

Time management
Planning how long a task will take and sticking to that plan.

Time sequencing
Knowing the order tasks need to be done. For example, shoes before getting in the car or brushing teeth before putting on pajamas.

Time reproduction
Repeating a task for about the same length of time as they did before.

So what can we do about it?

The first step is surprisingly simple. We need to help our kids see time.

How do we do that? Bring back the analog clock.

Think back to sitting in school watching the clock. You did not just read numbers. You watched time move. You could feel it. You knew that lunch was at 11:45 and you watched the minute hand work its way toward it.

A digital clock does not give us that same feeling.

The more kids grow up without analog clocks, the harder it becomes for them to understand or feel time. They lack visual anchors. They cannot sense the passing of minutes or see how close something is.

At our house, we love using a dry erase marker to create blocks of time on our “doing clock.” I will walk you through that another day.

For now, work on reframing how you see lateness at home. Your child is not being lazy, disrespectful, or intentionally difficult. Time awareness is a lagging skill. Visual tools are what help it grow, not constant reminders.

Research in executive function consistently shows that kids need visual time supports, not repeated reminders, to develop internal awareness of time.