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Background Children in need of special support (INS) often display delays in time-processing ability (TPA) affecting everyday functioning. Typically developing (TD) children are not yet mature to use the information of a clock.Aim To investigate the feasibility of an intervention program, MyTime, to facilitate TPA and everyday functioning in pre-school children, including the subjective experiences of pre-school staff and the children.Materials and Methods The intervention sample consisted of 20 children: 4 INS and 16 TD. Intervention was given daily in 8 weeks with MyTime in the pre-school environment. Data collection procedures were evaluated and children were assessed for TPA pre- and post intervention. Everyday functioning were assessed by teachers, parents and children. Experiences of the intervention were assessed by a group interview with teachers and a Talking Mats© evaluation with children.Results MyTime worked well in pre-school and indicated an increase in the children’s TPA and everyday functioning. The program was perceived simple to use by teachers and children highlighted the importance to understand the duration of time.Conclusion The program MyTime was found to be feasible in the pre-school environment. Significance: The assessment and program design can be used to investigate intervention effectiveness in a randomised study.

Children in need of special support in preschool (INS) often exhibit delayed time processing ability (TPA) which can significantly impact their everyday functioning (EDF).This study evaluates whether the MyTime intervention could improve TPA and EDF in preschool children aged five to six-year INS.A registered randomized controlled trial (ISRCTN85136134) using a waiting-list control group investigated the effectiveness of MyTime, an occupational therapy intervention program given to preschool children INS in their classrooms for 8 weeks. Data collection included KaTid-Child (R) for the assessment of TPA, the Time-Parent scale, the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System, and the Autonomy scale for assessing EDF. To evaluate between-group differences, data were analyzed using linear regression.The results show that both groups improved from baseline to post-intervention in TPA and everyday functioning but at the post-intervention, there were no between-group differences.To summarize, the MyTime intervention, indicated an increase in TPA and EDF but no between-group differences were found. Early cognitive levels of TPA in preschool children INS advocate for a longer intervention period. It is possible that long-term follow-up or additional measuring of the teacher's attitudes and the children's engagement in the preschool context could have yielded other results.

Background

Children in need of special support often display delays in time processing ability, affecting everyday functioning. MyTime is an intervention programme for systematic training of time processing ability. To support preschool children's development of time processing ability and everyday functioning, it is necessary to include their perspectives of the MyTime intervention programme. A previous study shows that MyTime is feasible with children in the preschool setting and shows positive effects on time processing ability for older children in special schools. Yet, there is a lack of knowledge regarding how preschool children experience the intervention programme and how they understand its meaning. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences and the meaning of using MyTime from the perspective of children with informal needs of special support (INS) 5–6 years of age in the preschool context.

Methods

To explore the children's perspectives, video-recorded interviews with 21 children were analysed hermeneutically. To facilitate the interview situation with the children in need of special support, the Talking Mats© was used. Both body and spoken languages were analysed.

Results

The results reveal children as active participants, willing to share their experiences of using the MyTime intervention in the preschool context. The conceptualization of the children's experiences and expressions uncovers their meaning of using the MyTime intervention as to know and to understand time by doing.

Conclusions

When children are given the opportunity to use concrete tools to understand and measure time, they experience themselves as active participants involved and engaged in the intervention. They reveal meaningful experiences to be able to manage time that facilitate their everyday functioning and participation in the preschool context.