Telling the time

[jellybelly25]

When did other dc's learn properly to tell the time and actually use/understand it appropriately in conversation?

My lovely, creative, but very airy fairy and somewhat mathematically challenged 11yo dd basically still, despite much practise with me, dh and school, can't really tell the time and is now in a situation where people arrange to meet her at a time and she can't really fathom what they mean. Eg twenty to - she could quite easily turn up to this forty minutes late or early as she just can't get her head around it.

I've wondered if she has dyscalculia but then she can do a lot of other maths very well. Time just seems to flummox her...

the first sign that ds1 was dyslexic was the fact that he was totally unable to tell the time at age 7, so i would guess 11 yo is a bit late... but unless there are other things that are bothering you perhaps its just a bit of a blind spot.

Really? Gosh. The thing is that if you gave her a picture of a clock with a time on she could do it, but she has no idea what it means when people say it, iyswim.

She's definitely not dyslexic she's very talented with literacy, spelling etc. Interesting though that that was an indicator.

ah ok, i see what you mean, she struggles with it conceptually rather than actually with knowing what it means when the big hand is on the 1 and the small hand is on the 2, sort of thing?

Yes exactly. It never occurs to her to even think about what the time is, for example, she has only just been able to tell me what time they have lunch at school. She knows that at 8.25 she must leave the house for school, but never looks at the clock/her watch to see what time it is and therefore whether she must leave now or not, until we are going 'OMG you are going to be late look at the time!' etc etc.

It's a real problem - head in the clouds. She's so easy going, life just happens to her and she goes along being cheerful.. But people won't tolerate it as she gets older, and she knows she doesnt' understand it so she pretends she does... We have been over it a lot of times but I can't get her to see the overall concept as you say.

I was like this, I couldn't do easy time questions on a basic maths test until I was about 13. Even now I struggle with it eg. how long a 190 min film is in hours, I can't do it because it's not in units of ten. Was v good at algebra and trigonometry just can't fathom bloody time.

Airy fairy sounds about right. However I am now v early for all appointments because I dramatically overcompensate for this prob. Difficulties I found at school were exams - how much time has gone by and how long do I have left? And am unable to guess how much could be done in 15 mins. So I practiced at home with mum shouting out how much time had gone by all the time when I was watching TV and stuff! She needs digital everything and a really good alarm setting on her phone (if you let her have one). Set an alarm to sound 30 mins before an activity is due to start, then another alarm with a different tone 15 mins before etc. etc.

Hasn't really affected my adult life at all.

Ok thanks owl. That's good to know (I may show her that post actually). I think warning alarms will be good for her.