Help teaching 5y.o to tell the time? digital or analogue or both? Any DVD's on it?

Hey guys,

I'm looking for some help so I can teach DS (5) the time. I have a clear large digital clock, and one of those childrens learning clocks in the kitchen, and I also bought him a game on how to tell them time - but it was a bit too advanced for him.

I really need him to 'get' it, he is on the autism spectrum, and mornings are progressively getting worse and worse for us (& hence getting late to school and causing problems there also). He is a very visual learner, so I wanted to make him a morning chart telling him what time things need to be done for us to get out of the house on time. I also think it would help him as he is very routine orientated, and just having a concept of time will help him.

And then when I tell him he has time out for X mins, or we are going in X mins, rather than just put on the timer with the buzzer, this might also make more sense to him.

At first I thought I would just do digital, as it seemed easier to me, but as I was trying to explain it to him I don't think it was making sense about what are seconds, minutes & hours... At least with a analogue clock you get the sense of why the hours tick over after a full circle of the clock.

How have people taught their kids the time? Can any recommend any good DVD's that teach it, as he is a very visual learner and has a phenomenal memory, especially for graphics and really engaging things.

Thanks so much, I'm a bit desperate.

We taught with analogue.
We started with the hours only and didn't bother with the big hand. Once DS understood that the little hand told the hours we introduced the big hand.

We didn't have a DVD but we did have a Thomas book with a clock. It went through the day - at 7 O'clock Thomas woke up etc and as we read it DS moved the clock.

Analogue here. DS knows the big hand is at the top and the little hand is at the number for an "o'clock" but TBH I'm not pushing it. I can tell him where the big hand will be when dinner is ready and that quietens all questions (or did until DH packed away all the analogue clocks until we move: I now have to take off my watch every evening so DS knows when food is ready).

We do have a Spot the dog DVD packed away somewhere with a 15-min telling the time episode. It looked pretty straightforward but it will be in a box for the next 2-4 months so I won't be able to give any more info on that. We also have a jigsaw clock we play with.

could you ask his therapists for advice/learning aids?

makes more sense to me, to learn the analogue version first, but i'm not a teacher, or a spectrum therapist, so can only make a general mum comment.

my nearly five year old is learning the "o'clocks", and it is helping her alot.
we began with the calendar, crossing off days, months ago. i didn't see it (at the time), as having anything to do with reading the time, but learning the numbers 1 - 30, has helped her with reading the clock too.

You can buy wall clocks with the numbers, for under $5 at big w etc, (cannot believe how cheap they are), so we're making a special effort to have more clocks like that now (to help her learn the time at mummy's house and daddy's house).

Just had another thought, i have come across good "video tutorials" on youtube, about all sorts of things. Maybe try Youtube. Google "teaching reading the time to children on autism spectrum"? etc.

i guess every kid responds to different things. Does he like books? or being taught orally?
e.g a train book about reading the time would be great, if your child was keen on trains and enjoyed books.

Perhaps in the meantime while he's learning (no help there sorry) your visual chart could be broken into 10 min timer "tasks". So 10 mins dressing, 10 mins eating etc. Maybe teaching him to watch the timer and hurry at the task then move to the next one would help?

I agree with Meow - setting out a timetable with the hour that things occur might be the way to go to help in the meantime while you work on clock reading skills. You could even draw a clock with the time and then an associated picture/photo to go with it so he can match it up to a real clock ITMS.

I would be teaching both digital and analogue, that is what we do at schools, kids need to know how to read both, including 24 hour time. Thing with time is, it's a really weird mathematical concept, the way it can be broken into 60, 12, 5's, 10s, etc. there are a huge amounts of elements involved. You can get clocks that have the TO and PAST on the them and trying somewhere like Windmill Educational may help if you need other resources as well. I know from teaching grade 5/6s for quite a number of years a few years ago, that a lot of kids even at that age struggled with some concepts.

Good luck hun xoxox

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I agree with Meow - setting out a timetable with the hour that things occur might be the way to go to help in the meantime while you work on clock reading skills. You could even draw a clock with the time and then an associated picture/photo to go with it so he can match it up to a real clock ITMS.

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I love this suggestion - b/c it is visual and then your DS can compare to a 'real' clock.

There is a clock that I got DD from a kids party plan type thing - I think it is a 'Doug & Melissa's' clock - you can move the hands etc... I'll check when I get home tonight (I'm at work tonight).

give him some "tick tock" biscuits. The ones with fluro icing and the clock on the back... if he gets the right time... he gets rewarded with a biscuit. You can even go through the biscuits to start with the o'clock ones

One other thing, if you buy a clock for him make sure it's geared so the little hand moves with big one.

It may be a bit babyish for him, but the playschool site on ABC kids has a tell the time with Jemima game that deals with Jemima's day and the time and the clock when she does things.

We will be using the analogue clock again with DS2 - I work at Parliament House and with over 2700 clocks in the building he quickly learnt what a "clock" was!

With DS1 I actually found it easier with analogue. I bought him a watch that had "quarter past" and "quarter to" and "half past" etc. You can buy "clock face" online from ELC toys dot com dot au - they're only $5.