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Language Concepts

Temporal Concepts

Before, after, first, next, last, yesterday and tomorrow.

Mastered by
First and last, and sequencing two events, generally come together around 4
Practice items
18
Sections
3

What this skill is

Time words are abstract in a way that spatial words are not - there is nothing to point at. Worse, "before" and "after" can reverse the order the events are mentioned in: "before you eat, wash your hands" names eating first but requires washing first. Children who follow that sentence by doing whatever they heard first are not being careless; they are using a reasonable strategy that this particular sentence defeats.

What to expect

Expect "yesterday" to mean any time in the past for a good while - a child may say "yesterday we went to the beach" about a trip last summer. That is a vocabulary stage, not a memory problem. Order-of-mention errors on before and after are the thing to watch, and they resolve later than most people expect.

Try this at home

Narrate routines with the words in them, deliberately varying the order: "Before we go out, we get shoes." "We get shoes before we go out." Same instruction, two orders - and the child has to attend to the word rather than the sequence they heard.

When to refer

Cannot sequence two familiar events by about 4;6, or still relies on order-of-mention for before and after past 6.

Print it

Temporal Concepts worksheet18 items across 3 sections, with answer key · PDF

First, Next, Last

6 items

Put each set in order. Say what happens first, next and last.

  1. 1.eating the cake / lighting the candles / singing happy birthdaylight the candles, sing, eat the cake
  2. 2.putting on socks / putting on shoes / tying lacessocks, shoes, laces
  3. 3.turning on the water / washing hands / drying handswater, wash, dry
  4. 4.getting in the car / buckling the seatbelt / driving awayget in, buckle, drive
  5. 5.opening the book / reading the story / closing the bookopen, read, close
  6. 6.cracking the eggs / mixing the batter / baking the cakecrack, mix, bake

Before or After?

6 items

Answer each question. Watch out - the first thing said is not always the first thing that happens.

  1. 1.Before you eat, you wash your hands. What do you do first?wash hands
  2. 2.After you brush your teeth, you go to bed. What do you do first?brush teeth
  3. 3.You put on your coat before you go outside. What do you do first?put on coat
  4. 4.After the movie ended, we went home. What happened first?the movie ended
  5. 5.Before the sun comes up, it is dark. What happens first?it is dark
  6. 6.We had dinner after we played outside. What did we do first?played outside

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

6 items

Fill in the blank with yesterday, today or tomorrow.

  1. 1.It is Tuesday now. Monday was ____.yesterday
  2. 2.It is Tuesday now. Wednesday is ____.tomorrow
  3. 3.I am wearing my red shirt ____.today
  4. 4.I went to the zoo ____ and it was closed.yesterday
  5. 5.My birthday is ____, so I am excited to go to sleep!tomorrow
  6. 6.It rained ____, but the sun is out now.yesterday