To expect a 15yo NT child to be able to tell the time?

[clary]

Just that really. Teenager I was talking to today got out phone to see what the time was - I pointed out a nearby clock - "I can't read that" by which he meant not that he needed glasses, but that he didn't know how to tell the time on an analogue clock.

I was really shocked - is this usual? Are we, thanks to mobile phones and their ubiquity, moving to a time when young people will only understand a digital clock? And does that in fact matter?

[QueenTilly]

See, this is how bad it is, then! Everyone I know calls the hour hand the big hand!

[QueenTilly]

Seriously, this gives me hope that the big hand insanity is in fact extremely localised. I have new impetus for telling them all that they're bonkers.

[EllenJanesthickerknickers]

Big hand is the minute hand as per Play School!

[QueenTilly]

Where were you lot when I was arguing about this in RL? Hmm? Hmm?

[HerrenaHarridan]

Ok so the hour hand is thicker and could be called bigger BUT the second hand is longer than the minute hand.

The minute hand is NOT the bloody big hand unless your talking about surface area but my preschooler didn't seem to grasp that explanation.

Why can't they just be different shapes or pointy, rounded and square ends?

[BringMeTea]

Queentilly that is funny. You threw me with your initial assertion! Where is this localized idiosyncrasy?

I think more and more children will never learn to read analogue clockfaces. Prolific use of 'phones as main reason. Odd isn't it? Evolution I suppose.

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

We have a back to front clock. Itdoes take me a little extra time, as a result, to read a standard clockface.

Once dd starts learning to tell time, we will probably move it into the bedroom.and buy a standard clock, so as not to confuse her.

My dh struggled to tell time til he was about 13. He also is quite "clunky" in how he ties his laces, holds his cutlery and write certain letters and numbers.

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

Id like to get this clock!

[QueenTilly]

BringMeTea
Not telling!

You can have no idea of how much I want to print this thread out and send it to my mother and MIL. Although they grew up in completely different places, so maybe it isn't even that. I had a Discussion with DH many years ago, and he agreed that "long hand" and "short hand" were better, but just last week I heard him slip back. I pointed and said, "Is that bigger? IZZIT?" with remarkable bad-temper swiftness.

Maybe it all goes back to when the style of clock faces was for narrow minute hands and comparatively broad hour hands with decorative curls on? I'm sure there was a grandfather clock like that at my aunt's when I was little.

[QueenTilly]

This isn't very much like the older clocks I remember as a child, but it's similar. I can see how one could focus on comparing the widths, not the lengths.

[BringMeTea]

Yes, that seems a reasonable historical explanation but personally have never met anyone who refers to hour hand as the 'big' hand.

[QueenTilly]

You poor sod. All the teenage angst and confusion you've missed out on!

Terrible, it was.

[Lottiedoubtie]

My two degree educated physicist DH couldn't tell the time on an analogue clock until I taught him.
Can win pub quizzes on his own and answer 90% of university challenge questions though.

It's odd, but true!

Also never heard an hour hand being referred to as the big hand!

[Bulbasaur]

I have dyscalculia. I can read analogue clocks, but it was a struggle to learn. First, it requires you to look at the numbers, and hands, then you have to multiply those numbers by 5. On top of that you have people breaking time into fractions "quarter past 5", etc. With someone who struggles in math and mixes up numbers, I think you can begin to see why someone would struggle with an analogue clock. Now I can read them like second nature.

I buy artsy analogue clocks to have around the house in every room because they look nice (and I have no internal time clock so having a constant display of how much time has passed is helpful for me). I only like digital clocks on screens, like computers, phones, etc..

[sashh]

No, it's not usual. I'm a maths teacher and pretty much all kids can tell the time. I've known a handful who can't but it's not common.

That's totally the opposite of my experience.

I once asked a student 'what time do you call this?' meaning - 'you are late', she got out her phone to tell me, but she had a very bling watch on so I asked her why she used her phone, she couldn't tell the time on her watch - it was just jewelry.

It took me a long time to learn but I'm dyslexic, I now expect teenagers to not know how to read an analogue watch.

I still sometimes get it mixed up, I will look at my watch and think it says '9 o'clock' but it is actually 3 o'clock. I'm usually OK because I think 'nah, can't be'.

[HappyAmbler]

My 32 yr old dh struggles to tell the time on an analogue clock - he has a degree and a technical job. We think he's naturally left handed but was forced to use his right hand hand as a child. I suspect these two things are related, but of course there's no way of knowing for sure.

[DollyMcDolly]

I work with a 17 year old and she can't tell the time on an analogue. I was shocked. Say it was 7.40 and her shift finished at 8.00, she wouldn't be able to tell you how many minutes she had left on her shift either

[Mrsjayy]

My dyspraxic dd can't read a clock very well she prefers digital tbh leastvhe could read his phone most kids its all digital these dayx anyway.

[Mrsjayy]

I got a watch the other Christmas and because vit had no numbers I strugglr
ed and took a while to work it out

[Rooberoobe]

I had one similar to this as a child with a book to teach you. I was so excited to get one for my birthday. (Sad child I was!)

Telling the time is a difficult skill to learn. So often children are taught add to 10, add to 100 then it's oh but time is only to 60. I can see how is confusing.

[5Foot5]

I remember when digital watches first caught on (that's how old I am!) the boy next door had one and was very taken with it. However, it soon became apparent that not only could he not read a normal clock face but he couldn't make the connection between what his watch told him and the "analogue" way of expressing time. For example, he could look at his watch and say "It is 1:30" but he didn't understand that was the same thing as half past one. That kind of thing is probably easier to visualise and understand if you can tell the time from a clock face.

[AlpacaLypse]

I don't think when I tell the time with my analogue watch that I waste any energy translating the pattern of the hands to actual numbers, instead I recognise the shape the hands make and think 'quarter to, better organise leaving to collect xyz now'.

My late father and brother were strongly dyslexic, although my spelling and reading are fine, I have issues with left and right (which failed me my driving test twice) and still frequently mix up 2 and 5 and 6 and 9.

[Bunbaker]

DD is in year 10 and has a friend who can't tell the time on analogue clocks. She is bright though.

[Noodledoodledoo]

Maths teacher here as well and I have also seen an increase in students not being able to do it of all abilities and with no underlying issues. (Example student got an A in her GCSE but can only use digital)

It is down to phones being used, I get moaned at as we have a phone ban in class and students will often say they need to look at the time - my response is there are two clocks in the room they can use but both are analogue - one similar to the one Thinkivebeenhacked posted - most then say they dont understand them!

[ShesAnEasyWuffer]

My sister who is NT and very bright (med school student) has always struggled to tell the time. She isn't sure why. It does happen.