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.

recently I've notices a lot of teens now say 35 past

I don't want to push her and nag her about it as that's her mother and fathers job.

I don't think it's anyone's job to push and nah her.

I'm a big fan of 'in their own time'

All you can do is gently encourage. The bigger fuss the harder it will be. Lots of kids do t learn these skills until much later, if at all.

I also feel uncomfortable with almost any kind of 'should' by age... rules.
Except reading, I guess. I'd really like to see basic reading skills in place by 8yo.

FWIW, I'm >50 & not great at lace-tying... DC learnt to tie laces at 14yo, 8yo, 12yo & (not yet at 11yo).
Hard to even find lace-up shoes to fit before 11-12yo.

Time is a tricky one. Yes it’s taught in school but I think parents need to do the bulk of the work - 1 week a year then nothing is not going to make it stick. In theory, by the end of y4 children should be able to read digital and analogue clocks and convert between. Analogue isn’t taught in y5/6 as it should already be secure by then (but often isn’t). I have noticed children with dyslexic tendencies struggle particularly.

It makes me laugh (or despair!!) when people say ‘mine can read a digital clock’ - what literally read the 2 numbers out?! Y1 should be able to do that. Unless they know how many mins in hour, how long TIL the next hour etc, being able to read the numbers is pretty pointless.

I think it’s awful so many teenagers need to ask for help telling the time in their GCSE exams. Perhaps schools need to move with the times and put digital clocks in - to be fair, I have no analogue clocks in my house so not sure how easy it will be to teach my daughter when she reaches that age!

If they have dyspraxia they may never get there...

DD really struggles with fine motor control but did get there with laces in junior school. She can't subtract and add time, and can't read a traditional clock face and reads out time just weird.

We finally got her assessed at 16 and turns out she has dyspraxia despite these things plus her inability to throw, catch and huge struggle learning to swim are the only things that indicate it beyond her school work not reflecting her ability.

BTW she taught herself to ride a bike as a pre-schooler.

My 9 year old can tell the time - my 13 yo struggles He declared this week that he's never ever going to learn to do laces because if adults can still have velcro then he doesn't need to

Dd 10 has been tying laces since about 9 years old. She still struggles with telling the time but can do it you don't rush her. Learnt to ride her bike recently so early 10 years.

Ds 9 has been tying laces since age 7, was riding a bike at 6 & telling the time from 8.5ish.

Ds 7 can't do laces, ride a bike or tell the time yet & doesn't really want to try apart from telling the time. He could tell you loads of dinosaur facts though!

Age 4/5 for bike, 5 for laces and 5/6 for time here so far. I recall being able to do these things before 5 as a child, I just think people don't on the whole spend their time teaching skills any more. I was shocked when a friends 9yo couldn't do laces tbh.

I just think people don't on the whole spend their time teaching skills any more. I was shocked when a friends 9yo couldn't do laces tbh.

I hope you are not my friend.

I still have issues with tying my laces and I have no idea about left and right. I was diagnosed as dyspraxic when I was 18

I'm a teacher and can assure you it's very common. Telling the time is notorious for being difficult for kids. If you think about it there's so many things to think about: analogue, digital, 12 hour, 24 hour, Roman numerals, analogue with no numbers or just markations, time intervals, seconds, minutes, hours days, months, years, decades, millennium etc etc. It's never ending.

Not uncommon for the laces either although this is definitely one for parents to teach and not school (not saying you expect school to teach her it but some parents do!) I once had a parents evening where angry mum said it was ridiculous her daughter hadn't been taught to tie her laces. I had to agree

My eldest could tie shoelaces at 4/5 but still struggles with time and she's 14 now lol. She can actually do it if she concentrates tho. My 9 year old has learned laces a couple of years ago and is doing well telling time now

My DD was Age 4 for tying shoes and age 6 for o clock / half past.
She won’t do the rest of time until next year.

DD1 is seven and has just learnt to tell the time. She has also only cracked swimming this summer. She can’t ride a bike yet and we haven’t tried laces.

I can’t tie shoe laces or ride a bike or swim (age 47) but I don’t have dyslexia or dyspraxia. I just can’t do those things. Learnt to tell the time and to read at a very early age though (before school).

Also I think she was 5 when she learned how to ride her bike independently

and we haven’t tried laces

Why not?

I'm dyspraxic. I still can't tie my laces or tell the time on an analogue clock

Because she doesn’t have any shoes with laces most children’s shoes in her size are Velcro. I’m sure she will be fine when the time comes

My daughter is 21 and has to think carefully about both. Very very bright, NT and super amazing (I think!!) she's always found both tasks thought provoking

We're all different

No idea about 'should' by dd was telling the time before she started school and laces about age 9, although she never had laces til then.

About 8/9 for shoes as I have hypermobile joints and had buckle up shoes (with the buckle attached to elastic because I couldn't do that up, either) throughout infants. Still hurts my hands to do it now.

I was about 10 before I learned to ride a bike without stabilisers. Those hypermobile joints were already at peak capacity trying to hold me up (and frequently failed at that, going by the number of dislocations I had)

Telling the time, much earlier - digital clocks and watches were still expensive/seen as a pretty neat idea, so almost every clock I saw was analogue and we had loads of worksheets where we had to fill in times over (what is now called) year 2 to consolidate the initial teaching in reception and year 1.

It is very common to have older kids (and adults in my experience) that can't work out times in analogue - seems that it's assumed to be known in infants and anyone who has difficulty after that is assumed to be fine because digital is on every phone, on computers by default, and teachers don't have time beyond the set terms to work on catching others up.

DS - Bike at 3.5, laces at 8/9; time, reliably, at 10.
DD - Bike by 3, laces at 6, time at 7. Swot!!

My 10 year was able to tell time about age 8, but is just starting to tie his laces now. He can do it, I watched him. But it’s very loose and they come quickly undone which is making him frustrated. My 6year old can’t tell time yet, but is getting there with laces. So looks like he’ll get the hang of this quicker than ds1. My 10yr old didn’t ride his bike without stabilisers until nearly 7 and ds2 was only 3.5. So I think it’s every kid just develops at their own unique rate. She’ll probably get it soon.

Dd was 4 when she learned to ride a bike, 5 for shoe laces and either 5 or 6 for time (Y1 at school).
Children all learn at different rates but she’s getting to the later end of being able to do these things. I teach 10/11 year olds. I’ve not come across any NT kids that can’t do laces and tell the time by Year 6. Does she have any other issues?