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Transitions can be hard.
Makes
them easier.
Created by a pediatric occupational therapist, Timer Friends was designed with neurodivergent children in mind to support transitions, routines, attention, and independence in a playful way.
Why Everyday Transitions Can Lead to Big Feelings
The Challenge
What This Can Lead to
Solution
Parents
Reduce meltdowns and bring more calm to your day.
Visual timers help children prepare for transitions, understand time limits, and follow routines with greater success—leading to less stress, fewer battles, and a more peaceful home for parents and caregivers.
Clinicians
Improve transitions and maximize therapy time.
With fewer transition struggles and less time spent redirecting behavior, clinicians can focus on delivering effective, child-centered therapy.
Educators
Less time managing behavior. More time teaching.
Visual timers make classroom expectations clear, helping students stay focused, transition smoothly, and participate more successfully throughout the school day
Designed for Real Life
Timer Friends can be used throughout the day to support emotional regulation with:
Morning & bedtime routines
Homework & learning activities
Playtime transitions
Screen-time limits
Waiting and turn-taking
Therapy sessions
Classroom activities
Why Timer Friends
Timer Friends was created to address a challenge that many children face: understanding time. Time is an abstract concept that cannot be seen, touched, or experienced directly, making it particularly difficult for young children and many neurodivergent learners. Research has found that children with ADHD demonstrate significant difficulties with time perception, estimation, and management, which can contribute to meltdowns, increased frustration, difficulty completing routines, and challenges during daily transitions (Faraone et al., 2019; Wennberg et al., 2018). Similarly, many autistic children benefit from visual supports that increase predictability and reduce uncertainty, as unexpected transitions and changes in routine can contribute to heightened stress and dysregulation (Casassus et al., 2019).
While visual timers are widely recommended by occupational therapists, educators, and psychologists, many existing timer designs rely on shrinking wedges, character reveals, or changing geometric shapes. These formats may be difficult for children who struggle with visual-perceptual skills, including form constancy—the ability to recognize an object as the same despite changes in size, shape, or appearance. As the visual representation changes throughout the countdown, some children may have difficulty interpreting how much time remains, increasing confusion rather than clarity. For children with ADHD and autism, uncertainty about when an activity will end or what comes next can contribute to emotional dysregulation, resistance, anxiety, and transition-related meltdowns.
Timer Friends takes a different approach by transforming time into engaging, child-friendly visual experiences that are easier to understand and more motivating to use. Rather than requiring children to interpret abstract symbols or changing shapes, Timer Friends uses animated characters and concrete visual cues to make the passage of time predictable, meaningful, and developmentally appropriate. By increasing predictability and reducing ambiguity, Timer Friends supports emotional regulation, eases transitions between activities, and promotes greater independence across home, school, and therapy environments. The result is a tool that not only helps children understand the concept of time but also helps caregivers, teachers, and therapists reduce stress and create smoother, more successful daily routines.
Wennberg, B., Janeslätt, G., & Nilsson, S. (2018). Time-related interventions for children with ADHD. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(6), 1091.
Casassus, M., Poliakoff, E., Gowen, E., Poole, D., & Jones, L. A. (2019). Time perception and autism spectrum condition: A systematic review. Autism Research, 12(10), 1440–1462.
Research Links
Research supports the use of visual schedules, time-assistive devices, and visual supports to improve transitions, self-regulation, and time management for children with ADHD, autism, and other developmental disabilities. Timer Friends builds upon this evidence by combining a visual countdown timer with engaging visual supports, helping children understand both what is happening next and how much time remains before a transition. See the following research articles for further information:
(2023)
Rutherford et al.
Piloting a home visual support intervention with families of autistic children and children with related needs.
This study found that visual supports improved participation in daily routines, increased predictability, and helped families implement smoother transitions for autistic children. Researchers concluded that visual supports reduce uncertainty and support successful participation in everyday activities. The study supports the idea that neurodivergent children benefit when expectations are made visible. Combining a visual schedule with a visual timer provides both sequence information ("what's next") and temporal information ("how much longer").
(2009)
Grey, Healy, Leader, & Hayes
Using a Time Timer™ to increase appropriate waiting behavior in a child with developmental disabilities.
This study specifically evaluated the use of a visual timer as a predictive stimulus to increase waiting behavior. The intervention successfully increased appropriate waiting from seconds to up to 10 minutes while reducing problem behavior associated with delayed access to preferred items and activities.
(2022)
Thomas et al.
The efficacy of visual activity schedule intervention in reducing problem behaviors in children with ADHD.
This systematic review found that visual activity schedules improve transition behaviors, increase on-task participation, and reduce disruptive behaviors in children with ADHD. The authors concluded that visual supports are an effective intervention for improving self-regulation and behavior during daily routines and transitions.
(2017)
Wennberg et al.
Effectiveness of time-related interventions in children with ADHD aged 9–15 years: A randomized controlled study.
This randomized controlled trial examined time-skill training combined with time-assistive devices (TADs), such as timers. Children who received the intervention demonstrated significant improvements in time-processing ability and daily time management. The authors concluded that making time visible and concrete can improve functioning in children with ADHD.
A study by Dettmer, Simpson, Myles, and Ganz (2000) found that providing advance warnings by using visual timers significantly reduced problem behaviors in neurodivergent compared to verbal warnings alone. Children who received visual transition warnings demonstrated less aggression, fewer self-injurious behaviors, and faster compliance with transition demands.
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