DD in year 5 and struggling with telling the time

[Flossietea]

My DD is in year 5 and still hasn’t mastered telling the time. Her teachers are working on it with her but she is really discouraged and feels bad about herself because ‘everyone else’ gets it and she doesn’t.

She is otherwise fine at school and although not a natural mathematician she can hold her own in other areas of maths lessons. It’s just time telling that she can’t grasp. It’s all a struggle - digital and analogue, 12 and 24 hour.

I have tried to help her but she is very resistant to me teaching her things (lingering trauma from homeschool probably) and it never ends well.

Anyone else been through this with a similar age child? Any tips? Or perhaps an app you can recommend? Any ideas gratefully received!

Could you chunk it down? eg just think about the hour hand at first and what number it’s nearest to. Worry about the rest another month. Take the pressure off.

I remember being shamed by a teacher for being unable to tell the time at your daughter's age, it was awful but I just couldn't work it out despite hours of training. I was probably around 12 when I learn't and was given a watch to wear. It was only the repetition that made me learn how to do it but decades later it still doesn't come naturally to me and I need to work it out.

My Dd couldn’t tell the time until she was 11 and still now , a few years later, can’t tell it immediately. She does also struggle with maths generally, but all other subjects are fine. Her younger sister could tell the time accurately at age 4. It seems to be a concept that some people just struggle with and others don’t.

Does she struggle with the digital as well as everything else?

It is a difficult concept - DD told me the other day she is at a selective grammar and is in the higher maths stream and 4 of her class cant tell the time. She gets annoyed because the girl who sits by her doesnt have a watch and cant read the time on the clock!

DD is in Yr 9 by the way!

I would step back from it and reassure her it will come . neither of my kids grasped telling the time easily but it is no reflection on how academically able they are .. the 14 year old can definitely now tell the time and routinely gets 100% in maths tests and the 12 year old is ok if he doesn’t panic about it and is also pretty decent at maths . In my experience they grasp it when it becomes necessary for their daily routine

Give her a decent analogue watch and make sure she wears it. Tell her what the time is and get her to look at the watch so she equates the what she hears with what the watch shows. Something like this where all the past numbers and one colour and the to numbers a different colour - sorry about the pink, other colours ARE available!

Does she understand the theory?
I.e. there are 60 minutes in a hour, 60 seconds in a minute, 24 hours in a day etc.
Does she have a comprehension or how long 5 minutes is? Can she do sums involving time?

There's a book '100 days of telling the time' which is about £3/4 on amazon which may be worth working through

@Flossietea, I know it is upsetting! But it will probably come! I had an analogue watch for 18 months, until the middle of Year 8, before it started to make sense, bit by bit.
The suggestion of a digital watch is a good one. But my main point is to relax your daughter about it.
By the way, there are some people who never learn to ride a bike, some who never learn to catch a ball. And many who do well at Maths GCSE without ever understanding Ratio!

Has she been tested for dyslexia?

DD was young for her year and struggled with the time. She is now a punctual, bright teen!

We put a "tell the time" app* on a tablet and encouraged hr to have a go at that every day or two for 10 minutes. We looked though her schoolbook to see what she already understood so we didn't jump ahead.
We also went out of our way to mention the time in conversations.

• there are bound to be loads now; google for recommendations/reviews.

Does she wear a watch? This may help make it more of a natural process, rather than something else to learn.

Make a straight number line numbered 1 to 12. Start with one arrow which is the ‘hour hand’. Place it on and between the numbers, getting her to recognise that on the numbers is eg 6 o clock, 7 o’clock and halfway between is half past. Do that loads until it is completely secure.
then make your number line round. It’s exactly the same concept. Continue with just hour hand. When completely secure, add in minute hand.

works every time!

I recommend you get Time Teacher watch and clock (you can get them from Amazon) which will help. Repetition helps, as does exposure to analogue clocks. It's quite common for children to grasp the concept of time.

*to find it difficult to grasp