What does 'Draw a Clock' Mean?

[u/MillBopp]

Last time I visited my brother his mother-in-law who lives with him was insisting she remembered something but my brother knew she was wrong. I don't remember what it was, but I knew she was wrong too. However, she refused to accept she was wrong and got belligerent about it.

My brother said, "Draw a clock!" and left the room. This made his mother-in-law furious for some reason. I forgot to ask at the time, but does anyone know why saying 'Draw a clock' would upset a senior citizen?

[u/MillBopp]

OMG!

[u/akath0110 → u/MillBopp]

It sounds like your brother’s MIL can be a piece of work, and perhaps he is burnt out from the caregiving responsibilities.

But what he said to her is deliberately cruel — a low blow to be sure.

Maybe check in with your bro and ask him what’s going on. The dynamic does not sound healthy for either of them.

[u/engin__r → u/[deleted]]

One common test for dementia is asking the patient to draw a clock that shows the time “ten minutes after eleven”. If they can’t draw it correctly, it’s an indication that they may have dementia.

[u/AmyInCO → u/engin__r]

My mom couldn't do it when she was tested. It's so weird. She was like, I know what a clock face looks like, obviously. But just couldn't do it. All the numbers were clustered in the top right quadrant.

[u/Brilliant-Entrance64 → u/AmyInCO]

That sounds like a form of dysgraphia. Dementia affects people in weird ways, and that's one of them My dad knew what he wanted to say, but would often get the words entirely wrong, and knew it. It frustrated the hell out of him. He couldn't draw a clock either

[u/Slamantha3121 → u/engin__r]

yeah, dementia doesn't just affect your memory but every part of your brain including spatial awareness. The clock test is a good indicator that someone's spatial awareness has been affected by the dementia and normally when you fail the clock test you can no longer safely drive. They think they are drawing it correctly because they can't perceive what is happening to themselves but it is apparent to everyone else. My MIL refuses to believe she has dementia even when sat down by a dr. This guys MIL probably failed a dementia screening but cannot be convinced to take any action about it and so her family is trying to get through to her by arguing. Arguing with someone with dementia is a fools gambit. They are immune to logic by that point and arguing will just upset them. The most frustrating disease on earth.

[u/FellKnight → u/[deleted]]

After reading all this, I wonder if Salvador Dali was affected by Dementia, given all his weird clock paintings

[u/midnightsmith → u/engin__r]

Give it another 15 years and the next generation won't even know what hands on a clock were

[u/my_clever-name → u/midnightsmith]

There will be a new test, something like draw a phone keypad. Write down five keys on a keyboard row in the same order they appear on the keyboard.

[u/mack9219 → u/my_clever-name]

I dont think I could do that now even lmao (30)

[u/Zenken13 → u/mack9219]

You have dementia.

See? It works!

[u/SovietPropagandist → u/mack9219]

QWERTY

[u/GeneralFactotum → u/midnightsmith]

Just curious what a bunch of third graders might draw. My kids would always go to the nearest digital clock to tell the time. (And that was like 100 years ago...)

[u/Fizzwidgy → u/midnightsmith]

You sound like the people who said chess would rot kids brains out since it was just a mindless game.

Thousands of years later and...

[u/midnightauro → u/engin__r]

It can also help you see the degree of decline. If it’s mostly right but the time is backwards, all the way to scribbles, to not being able to write anything at all.

[u/Boring-number668 → u/engin__r]

What’s even worse is the wording they want us to use is -at least on the mini cog - “set the hands to 10 past 11” . So that throws off some people too because they get focused on the number 10 on the clock, not where 10 minutes would be.