A parent's guide on how to teach your child to learn to read the time
A parent's guide on how to teach your child to learn to read the time
As a Neurocognitive Therapist, I work with all sorts of curious learning glitches. One that seems to be cropping up more and more in recent years is not being able to read the time. Children, who otherwise have reasonable ability, are stumped at telling the time from an analogue clock!
I’m not the only one who has noticed, of course. Nicola Woolcock, Education Editor for The Times, wrote about exactly this issue in her article Analogue Clocks are a test for exam pupils:
" Schools have been forced to install digital clocks in exam halls for pupils sitting their GCSEs who are unable to tell the time on a traditional clock face, education leaders have said…..Children learn to tell the time in school by the age of seven, but it appears that many teenagers have forgotten the skill. Pupils used to checking the time on their phones can be baffled by the hour and minute hands. Teachers worry that they could miscalculate the time left during exams, or waste time trying to work it out. "
It seems that many children who have learnt to tell the time are losing the skill through lack of practice, although my experience shows that many are still struggling to learn this in the first place, too. So, why is this happening, and what can be done to help?
“Once prepositions are understood in terms of moving in space, children can start to build the skills they need to understand the concepts of time before, on, or after the hour.”
What skills are required needed to be successful at reading the time?
There are many attributes a child must have before being successful at this task:
1. Good language skills
Reading the time requires the child to understand prepositions. For example, what do we mean by “before” and “after”? It’s something we take for granted as adults but, of course, at some point, children need to develop an understanding of these concepts.
Teaching prepositions is best done using movement. For example, moving forward whilst counting steps forward, and the same in reverse, moving backwards and counting backwards. This works so well because it ties an abstract idea with a real world physical activity. This can then be progressed into more complex activities as the ideas take hold.
Once prepositions are understood in terms of moving in space, children can start to build the skills they need to understand the concepts of time before, on, or after the hour. Just as with the activity, an analogue clock moves physically, so once the concepts are understood, it is less of a leap.
2. Good sequencing skills
Reading the time requires the implicit knowledge of both logic and sequence. Encouraging a child to talk about their day, each and every day, makes them think about the logical sequence of events. “I had my breakfast, then I went to school, then I saw my teacher…” etc. etc. From here, they can begin to apply sequence, which also has the added benefit of helping with other tasks, such as spelling.
3. Good short-term memory is known as Working Memory
NOTE; working memory and short-term memory are not the same thing! Here’s where to learn more about working memory.
Remembering the shorter hand represents hours, and the longer one, minutes, is challenging for some children. Particularly when it is combined with the need to apply meaning to the numbers the hands are pointing to. My free clock reading practice resource removes the memory portion of the activity because the colour of the number changes to match the colour of the hour hand. This makes the connection easier to make.
4. Processing at speed
Once they see where the hands are pointing on a clock, a child reading the time needs to quickly apply meaning to that position. This requires recalling the five times tables and applying whether the time is to the hour or past the hour. There are no external tools to help, and all of this needs to be done at speed.
“Reading the time requires good visual attention and this is a difficulty for children who have poor visual tracking as their eyes will not hold steady on the thing that needs to be looked at.”
5. Keeping focused
Reading the time requires good visual attention and this is a difficulty for children who have poor visual tracking as their eyes will not hold steady on the thing that needs to be looked at. Instead, their eyes may move around, causing their brains to get more and more confused. Improving eye tracking can be critical to this task, and specific visual motor activities such as Bal-A-Vis-X (a school-based programme) can really help.
To successfully read the time, all of these strategies need to be done simultaneously. When you think of it like this, you soon realise there is a lot more to this task than you might think! It is something which needs to be practised daily for a few weeks with particular emphasis on whichever aspect is challenging....it takes a lot of patience.
If your child is experiencing this, or any other “learning glitch”, you’re not alone. Get in touch to find out how we can help.
Dyslexia? Dyspraxia? ADHD? ASD? Speech & Language? Developmental Delay? Anxiety?
Is every school day a struggle? As a parent, you may feel exhausted and on this journey alone. Each year you see the gap getting wider. You need to do something - change the approach, help your child learn for themselves, find a way to turn this around before it is too late and they won’t listen - do this NOW. the first step is free.
About the Author
Usha Patel is a Neurocognitive Therapist and Director at Raviv Practice London. Parents searching to help their suspected/neurodiverse child can get evidence-based solutions with results in as little as 8 weeks. Those in search of jargon-free help can get started straight away.
