One of the uses for timers for many students is to help them learn to wait. Often I will give students a wait card (just a card that says wait and might have a symbol on it) and set a timer. Visual timers are nice because the students can see the time counting down that they are expected to wait. The Pyramid Educational Consultants that makes the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) have created an app for that. It is called Wait 4 It. It's available for iPod, iPhone, iPad mini and the iPad for $1.99. You select a picture (there are 50 picture symbols or you can take or upload your own photo). The sand timer counts down to the time you set and makes a noise when it reaches the end and the picture moves forward and larger.
Pros: It's pretty easy to use. I love that you can choose a picture or upload your own. It's visual for the students. You can set minutes and seconds, so you can set it for short times if needed. And finally, you can set it for minutes and seconds (I hate when you can only set minutes).
Cons: The timer only rings one time and I really wish it would continue so I can take it to all the children involved. I have to remember to hit it twice to set it and hit it twice to start the timer, which once I figured it out wasn't that hard. And finally, of course that it only works on apple products, as far as I can tell.
The second timer I want to talk about is the Time Timer. Many of you may be familiar with the visual timer Time Timer in stand alone timers we often use in our classrooms for kids with autism. I love the app because I don't have to find it--because I always have my phone.
For anyone not familiar with the Time Timer, you can read and watch a video here of all their products. The long and short of it is that it is a visual timer that has a colored dial that gets smaller as the time counts down. The visual aspect of it has been great for students on the spectrum for years, and now they make a noise when time is up, which is awesome! Otherwise, our kids just stayed on the computer (a common use for the visual timers is to show them how much time they have on the computer) and

Pros: You can have multiple timers with different colors and different sounds. You can name the timers and choose the colors or type of timer. You can set it to continue ringing. You can choose the sound it makes (I recommend trying them out because the default sound is pretty soft), and you can set it to awake mode so it doesn't go to sleep. It's available for Android and Apple devices.
Cons: It's hard to see small amounts of time and you can't set seconds. The sounds are a bit soft but you can solve that by choosing a loud obnoxious sound.
So, those are 2 tools I pull out and use for a variety of timer needs. What timer apps or tools have you used? Share them in the comments!
Until next time,