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?

[duchesse]

Ah, only 10mn at a time? Makes more sense. Revisiting weekly would make a lot of sense with pupils really struggling with it.

[ElkTheory]

I have noticed that some of my university students struggle to tell the time. The only reason I'm even aware of this fact is that I teach a foreign language and we cover time expressions. When presented with an analogue clock, some students have difficulty telling the time.

A year or so ago it dawned on me that most of my students don't wear wristwatches. They all use their phones instead. I don't think anything has ever made me feel so old.

[speedbird17]

DiddlyBiddly that is scary! I tell DH to follow my hands not my mouth .. I can't be trusted to not call both directions left, and when I point it's correct!!

When I do the 'L' shapes with my hands they both look like the letter L unless I think hard about it!

[Marcelinewhyareyousomean]

I'm like speed; can't tell time and don't know my left from right. Ds spent may hours with his shoes on the wrong feet.

I can work out the maths and understand roman numerals. Time is checked on my mobile.

[Marcelinewhyareyousomean]

I think I may be dyscalculic and I never knew it was a thing.

I can budget and tell the larger number however I can't:
Tell time using and analogue clock;
Have no idea about spacial awareness or able to gauge distance;
Don't know my left from my right;
Misname things with something similar.

[sashh]

I have one question though. Those of you who can only read digital displays, or know someone who can only do this, do you also struggle with 24hour/military time?

No it is more logical to use 24 hours, and as someone who got a digital watch as soon as they were available I have used 24hr as much as 12hr, and I don't get the 'is it 9 or 3' I get with analogue.

[unlucky83]

I was thinking about this...can all of us analogue clock/watch readers read a sundial? (At least one with no markings, accurately)
Maybe some of it lack of practice and necessity and just digital is more convenient/easier - technology has moved on.
I use an analogue watch and wear it constantly- never take it off unless it is broken/battery flat. I then realise how often I do look at it (empty wrist!) I really really miss it) and it still takes me a few milliseconds longer to tell the time with it than a digital display. And sometimes I use my phone if I am bothered about being to the last minute...ie we have 2 minutes to get to the train etc -it is just easier...
Maybe analogue clocks are going the way of the sundial....

[MsAspreyDiamonds]

The way I was taught to tell apart my left from my right was to focus on my writing hand. I am left handed so I was taught that first & then the right hand ifyswim.

[ancientbuchanan]

In a car, the easy way is to say " my side, your side".

There is an excellent book, old now but still good, for adults on dyscalculia, called Sum Hope, by Steve Chinn of Mark College. He's a nice person. I lent it to a friend who just didn't understand why his son was struggling, the friend was so transfixed that he read it all night through, scales dropped from eyes, and contacted Steve Chinn, who got back to him within 36 hours despite being a busy head teacher. A very happy ending for a perplexed Ds and DF.

[Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost]

My D.D is also 15 and can't tell the time either. I've never made a big deal out of it TBH.
She sees the time on her phone. A lot of her friends can't tell the time either. I would say it's quite common place being raised in a technical world.

[clary]

dertiebertie do you mean my comment would have made the 15yo feel bad? I didn't say anything rude to him, I was telling him to put his phone away is all (I am a teacher so I am allowed to do that )

I didn't go round the class asking who else couldn't tell the time if that's what you're thinking.

He is NT as it goes, ie has no diagnosed SEN, but I may flag up possible dyslexia as he is presenting as weak (whereas it may just be that he cannot access the work IYSWIM). So this thread has been useful, thanks all :)

dragonlette that's a brilliant idea re the intervention!

[Imi22sleeping]

I child minding a 5 and a 7 year old they have no idea about the clock I try and teach them but they get annoyed . I don't know if they are taught at school? I'm dyslexic and could tell time on a clock face by the time I was three