What age should a child be able to tie their laces and tell the time

[Littleduckeggblue]

My DSD is almost 10 years old. She still can't tell the time or tie her shoe laces. I bought her activity books on telling the time last year and she seemed to be getting the hang of it. My DH has also tried and tried to teach her to tie her laces.
What age were your children when they could do this? I seem to remember being able to do this from a much younger age. The same as riding a bike, she has only just got the hang of it the last few months after trying and failing for the last few years. I remember as a child playing out on my bike at such a young age!
I don't want to push her and nag her about it as that's her mother and fathers job.

My 22 year old still can’t tell the time properly. Although he has ASD & for some reason he’s just never been able to grasp it.

My 8 year old DD can do both though.

In short, I think the answer is it varies from child to child.

Ds (almost 6) is just getting to grips with both now- finding the laces easier than time

My 6yo is doing laces at the moment, she can get them fastened but not always tightly. No interest in time telling yet, I think they start doing it at school in year 2?

My son is too young, my daughter could do her shoe laces at 6. Not sure when she could tell the time - I guess she could do it pretty well at 7 or 8 at latest, but simpler parts like whole and half hour earlier, like 5 or 6.

My 2 we’re doing both by the time they started school at 5

Some people never learn to tie their shoe laces, it's just something our brains don't process!

Pushing and nagging from parents or anyone else is not going to achieve the desired result.

My son can tell the time, he was four in June, I have a big clock in the flat and we always go and have a look to see how long until something happens etc, so I think it’s just exposure really.

Does your daughter know her five times tables? If so she can work out how many minutes are represented at each number.

ds could tie his laces quite young, mainly because they kept coming undone on football pitch and he didn't like asking the coach to redo for him!

My 33 year old still has to stop and think to tell time with an analogue clock. I did exam invigilating in May/June, numerous students had to ask what time it was, now long had they got left, as they could only tell the time digitally

5 year old can tell the time and am currently teaching her to do shoe laces. She learned to ride a bike without stabilisers this summer and she’s one of the last of her friends to do so.
4 year old can tell the time in quarters, can’t do shoelaces yet and has also just learned to ride without stabilisers.

7.5yo can do time but not laces or riding a bike

DC1 is 18 and still has to really focus on tying laces. They never really mastered cycling, nor many other physical tasks. They were diagnised with dyspraxia at 17.

Have a concerted effort with the shoelaces.

How is she being shown?
Watch me do mine isn't a great way.
Sitting opposite and demonstrating isn't a simple way either.

How about sit side by side and have a shoe each on their lap? then the demonstrator can get her to mimic each hand and finger action slowly.
Maybe use thick cord rather than thin shoelaces.

If she still has problems with that, ask for a self-referral to an OT for fine motor skills. If she's generally clumsy too, ask for an assessment of gross and fine motor skills. Do mention that she's struggling with laces and time-telling and she's only just managed to ride a bike.

If she can't tell the time or tie laces, and has only just learnt to ride a bike, has she been tested for dyslexia and dyspraxia? If she has been shown and shown and can't get it there is a possibility that there is a reason for it.

I couldn't understand why DD2 couldn't do any of those things when her siblings all did, but turns out it is all connected with dyslexia and the way her brain works. She is 12 now, still can't tell the time and is painfully managing to do laces sometimes.

I used to tie my older brother's shoe laces because he couldn't.

As for telling the time, no teenagers can do that any more. They all use their phones.

Trouble with laces, riding a bike and telling the time sounds like dyspraxia. If she has difficulties you'd be better off supporting her than nagging her or making her feel "behind".

Yes to dyspraxia or dyslexia

For shoe laces she perhaps just needs to be shown properly. Kids wear Velcro shoes for years these days so most learn much later than we did. I remember being shocked when my brother bent down and tied the shoelaces on my then 12 yo niece’s shoes! I bought my kids their first lace up trainers at 7 and they learned fairly quickly (my DH far more patient at teaching them than me)

Telling the time they have to learn in stages and it’s surprisingly complicated to teach them. For my two I would say whole and half hours age 5-6, quarter hours 6-7 yr2, analogue to nearest minute 7, converting digital to analogue etc and Roman numerals age 8-9, yr 4.

"As for telling the time, no teenagers can do that any more."

Bullshit.

0my eldest is 9 and a half and learnt how to do shoelaces maybe 6-12 months ago. She still can't properly tell the time, she is quite stubborn and it's almost like a protest. The more I want her to do it, the less willing she is!

My 9 yo niece can ride a bike but looks awkward when trying to tie shoe laces, has difficulty using a knife and fork when cutting food and can't tell the time. I blame my sister for not showing and teaching her. She works in a school and often trots out "I'm with kids all day". I don't have kids but still try to teach my niece the basics when she's with me. There again I told my Dad off for cutting up my sister's meat when she was 13/14. His reply was "she won't eat it otherwise". So obviously it's been passed down the "if I don't want to do it, someone else will do it for me" thinking.

7 year old can tie laces, she learnt in about 5 minutes. It just happened that all of her shoes before were Velcro so she never needed to. 9 year old can't and refuses to try so I bought him elasticated laces that you don't need to tie.

Both can tell the time from a digital clock, although I don't know how much it means to them as such. We don't actually have an analogue anywhere for them to look at so I always try to explain when we're out and about and see one,

She learnt 4 weeks ago.

When teaching the time at school it was one of the hardest things for them to grasp in maths. There seemed to be no correlation between those who were on the top tables and those who weren't. Some found it easy, some didn't. A lot of kids had been taught at home which made life easier because teaching it one to one was far easier than class teaching it.

Both my nearly-9 and my 6yr old can tell the time, the older one perfectly and the younger one manages to the nearest quarter-hour usually.

Neither child has mastered shoelaces. Ds1 is borderline dyspraxic and just can't process the necessary steps and I haven't tried with Ds2 yet.