Why are they late? Timing abilities and executive control among students with learning disabilities.
Students with LD are late because weak working memory and inhibition slow them down, not because they can’t read a clock.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers watched 60 college students make a cup of coffee. Half had learning disabilities, half did not.
They timed every step and gave short memory and stop-signal tests. The goal was to see why students with LD are often late.
What they found
The LD group took almost two minutes longer to finish. They also mis-guessed the time by 30 seconds more.
Poor working memory and weak stop-signal control predicted the delays. Simple time sense mattered less.
How this fits with other research
De Meo-Monteil et al. (2019) found adults with autism actually beat controls on visual-motor timing. The two studies seem opposite, but Nufar tested everyday minutes while Rosanna tested split-second flashes. Different clocks, different skills.
Finke et al. (2017) also saw timing problems in autism, yet only in the ear, not the eye. Together the papers say: check the sense you are timing.
Reyes et al. (2019) showed kids with dyslexia learn faster with audio plus pictures. Like Nufar, they link LD to executive load and tell us to cut memory demand when we teach.
Why it matters
If your client is always late, do not just teach “clock time.” Add stop-signal drills and working-memory games. Break morning routines into tiny steps and let them check each one off. These moves target the real brakes on punctuality.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Run a 3-step coffee chain with built-in stop-signal pauses and a visual checklist; time it for three trials and graph the results.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
While a deficient ability to perform daily tasks on time has been reported among students with learning disabilities (LD), the underlying mechanism behind their 'being late' is still unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the organization in time, time estimation abilities, actual performance time pertaining to specific daily activities, as well as the executive functions of students with LD in comparison to those of controls, and to assess the relationships between these domains among each group. The participants were 27 students with LD, aged 20-30, and 32 gender and age-matched controls who completed the Time Organization and Participation Scale (TOPS) and the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult version (BRIEF-A). In addition, their ability to estimate the time needed to complete the task of preparing a cup of coffee as well as their actual performance time were evaluated. The results indicated that in comparison to controls, students with LD showed significantly inferior organization in time (TOPS) and executive function abilities (BRIEF-A). Furthermore, their time estimation abilities were significantly inferior and they required significantly more time to prepare a cup of coffee. Regression analysis identified the variables that predicted organization in time and task performance time among each group. The significance of the results for both theoretical and clinical implications are discussed. What this paper adds? This study examines the underlying mechanism of the phenomena of being late among students with LD. Following a recent call for using ecologically valid assessments, the functional daily ability of students with LD to prepare a cup of coffee and to organize time were investigated. Furthermore, their time estimation and executive control abilities were examined as a possible underlying mechanism for their lateness. Although previous studies have indicated executive control deficits among students with LD, to our knowledge, this is the first analysis of the relationships between their executive control and time estimation deficits and their influence upon their daily function and organization in time abilities. Our findings demonstrate that students with LD need more time in order to execute simple daily activities, such as preparing a cup of coffee. Deficient working memory, retrospective time estimation ability and inhibition predicted their performance time and organization in time abilities. Therefore, this paper sheds light on the mechanism behind daily performance in time among students with LD and emphasizes the need for future development of focused intervention programs to meet their unique needs.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2016 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2016.07.012