When should a child learn to tell the time by?

[megafatCEObaby]

DD is 6 in August and still can’t. It seems some of her friends can. What’s average?

Telling the time on a clock with hands eventually clicked for me just before I started secondary school (I had a digital watch so it wasn't a priority). I got an A in GCSE maths and now have 2 bsc (Hons) degrees both 2:1, so don't think it is a reflection of intelligence.

7/8ish?

Ds2 was first in his class who could do it in year 2

DD will be 9 in August and just got it. She’s very good at maths but just couldn’t get the time for some reasons.

Oh god it took me forever, I was definitely over 10. I struggle a bit with visual stuff like that but I have a good degree and a good career so don't worry!

I listened to a really interesting radio item a year or so ago about it and how illogical a thing it is for children to learn, even just the fact that everything's out of 60 when we're so used to doing things out of a hundred. The language we use to describe different times also demands knowledge of prepositions etc.

I've found that dyslexia /dyspraxia can cause issues with telling the time on an analogue clock.

I should add that I ask because I didnt get it until secondary school, around 12. So I dont know whens ‘normal’ but Ive been considered late. I am a summerborn though ;)

Dd is in y3 and can tell the time to the nearest 5 mins. Ds is in reception and has just started his o'clocks.

Earliest I know of was a child at dd1’s nursery (so age 4), mine both got it when the topic was covered in Y1 (just taught o’clock and half past, but they got the concept so we carried on teaching the rest at home, and then bought them a watch once they’d got it).

DS will Ben 6 in August, is in Yr1, and is starting to get the hang of it now. At 10 to 8 he told us it was 10 past, but can do his hours, halves and quarters, and knows how many minutes each number represents, so he's getting there. Just a bit of fine tuning.

We haven't really looked at digital clocks yet though.

This has mostly come from school, we've just done a bit of reinforcing at home. When we remember.

Will be. He's not Ben.

Telling the timetable is something that needs to be worked on at home, ime. There's a lot involved in it. There are lots of useful things like having an analog clock in an area used a lot at home and asking them what time it is, online games etc.
I've met kids as young as five who can, but that's unususal and they did ground work on it at home.

My 7yo is doing time again at school in y2. Last year (y1) they did o'clock and half past and they've gradually added to it so now it's to the nearest five minutes (with nearest minute for extension work). He does still get muddled when the hour hand is between numbers, but can work it out. He wouldn't be able to calculate time in complex calculations e.g. add two and a half hours to ten past four.

OP, can DD identify o'clock times? You could do a stick sun dial at home on consecutive sunny days (ha) to see time moving predictably.

They only do half hours/hours in year one.

They teach it in yr2 so age 6 and 7. Its not expected until then although many children will know half and quarter hours already.

Dd1 has just turned 7 (yr2) and can work out the time to nearest 5 mins but doesn't instinctively know iyswim for reading a clock. She can draw the time on a clock though.

It will depend whether you have analogue clocks up at home and refer to them, and the same at school, as well as on explicit teaching. If you have a clear, functional (not beautiful but oddly shaped and numeral free) numbered analogue clock on your living room and kitchen walls, and refer to them multiple times per day, your child will learn the time quicker.

All mine have got it before being taught at school, and I think it must be because I constantly referred to where the hands would be on the click to stop them asking every 2 minutes when dinner would be/ when their friend was coming over/ when we were leaving the house... and also to set time limits (you can watch TV until half past 4, then it goes off; that's when the long hand is on the six...)

I used to be a secondary school English teacher and to be honest one of my proudest teaching moments in my first year (graduate teacher program in a school just out of special measures, despite being sponsored by a neighboring beacon school) was teaching my bottom set year 7 to tell the time. Not one of them could when I started. Obviously it had nothing to do with the year 7 English syllabus, but they were all very proud of themselves and told me the time every time they saw me for months...

Although mine all learnt at home they then had to learn "time language" differently at school as we live in Germany - main problem being the halfs (9:30 is half ten not half nine...). I still hate it and have to think when people say they'll come around at three quarter ten... 9:45, but I want it to mean 10:45 as that makes sense to me...

I teach Y2 (so 6/7 years) and children are expected to know quarter hours, and must also know 5 minute intervals to achieve greater depth in maths.

Obviously there is a range though, I have children who can tell time to the minute including digital and 24 hour clock, while others are still practising half past.

I heard the other day that exam rooms are having to be equipped with digital clocks as youngsters these days struggle to read the time on an analogue clock face and are therefore unable to work out how long they have left before the end of the exam!!

Basic time telling by 6. Properly by 7.

My dd was secure with it by 8, my ds 10.
Dd is academic and on top sets, my son second sets.

I'm relatively badly dyslexic and I still struggle with time on digital clocks. I have to be careful I don't get time wrong on analogue clocks.

My son has an A in A level maths and can still get the time wrong.

It's not as simple as an age.

Yy catinapoolofsunshine here we have 'two quarters of four' = 3.30. Messes with my head! I cannot get to grips with it and it is very difficult not telling ds the time in English as then he'll get them all mixed up.

He is 6.5yo and cannot rell the time in any language.

DS1 learnt to the nearest 5 minutes when he was 2 years 10 months.

elQuinto I've taught all my kids in English and told them as they approach school age that it's different in German. Tbh I am constantly telling them "interesting" stuff about how everything is different in England, because I'm annoying like that I'm constantly trying to achieve the impossibile and make them exactly equally English and German and fully part of both cultures and languages... Futile but everyone has to have a hobby

They never get mixed up, only I do occasionally despite being here 11 years (not by halves but by bloody dreiviertel the following hour meaning quarter to...) Especially on the phone I'm forever repeating appointment times back using the 24 hour click to double check!