[BoomerSooner]

Also counting to 5 at the same speed as another individual (the one that matters in this case) while trying to process everything else happening on the court can be challenging. I once went through a drill at a camp where everyone was blindfolded and told to count a 10 second count when the music started and to stop the count when it ended or put our arm up (simulating a violation) when we got to 10. The blindfold was to keep us from watching each other, while the music was a sensory input to mess with our count. Sure enough, the music stopped after 8 seconds of clock time and half the group had arms up, of the remaining half, we had 1 guy that was at 5, a few at 6 and the bulk of us were at 7, 8 or 9.

We did the same with a 5 second count, and the music played for 6.5 seconds and the results were interesting reversed. About half of us had arms up, a few guys admitted to being only at 3 and the remaining guys had 4 or got caught trying to raise their arms quickly when the music stopped (per the supervisors).

All that said, I think they can count to 5 just fine. The problem may be counting 5 seconds.