Here’s an alarm clock that doesn’t mess around, either reading AWAKE or SLEEP. According to its creator, the clock works on a 4-hour cycle; by following the directions, a user is supposed to be able to “enjoy the benefits of a 21-hour day”—-which is kind of how long of a day some parents of autistic children feel they have. Yesterday’s Translating Autism reviewed a new study, Sleep Patterns in Preschool-Age Children With Autism, Developmental Delay, and Typical Development:
Children with autism slept significantly less during a 24 hours cycle than children with other developmental disabilities and typically developing kids. In regards …read more

“School tomorrow!” Charlie told me with his best grin this morning. He’d slept in, had breakfast around 11, practiced cello with a little coaxing. His internal clock is ticking away: Two days off and it tells him, that was the weekend, back to school. Imagine if everyone preferred to go without long weekends and always have that five-day workweek, no complaints.
Off to find some rides and maybe some fireworks, if the rain allows…….

While he seems to have a strong internal sense of what time it is, it’s been more difficult for Charlie to learn to tell time looking at a clock (the occasional “12 o’clock thirty” slips out). Here’s really big clock he or anyone would have a hard time missing. (If it was analog he was learning, I’d try the teaching hands clock.)

Jim and I were running to catch a D train under the Port Authority bus terminal on Friday night when we heard the drumming: “Those guys are always here,” Jim noted of two men playing upside down white plastic buckets with sticks. One man wore a black cap; his drumming involved some acrobatic footwork (”$5 per photo” said a handwritten piece of cardboard). A large circle of people were watching as I glanced back. The train screeched in; the strong fast beats kept going.
Would Charlie have stopped and stood, shoulders scrunched up and eyes squinting, to take in the …read more

There was a time when I never was sure my alarm clock would go off to wake me up for work. I had a digital alarm clock and Charlie, starting when he was about six years old, loved to post himself on his knees in front of a digital clock and change the numbers. At first he just stared at the blinking red lights that turned into numbers when he pushed the buttons; eventually he figured out how to change the numbers. 0, 3, 5, and 8 were the ones he favored, and in different patterns. Charlie had learned his …read more