How to call child component controller function/helper from Parent Component Controller

The handler name in your child component should match the registered name in the parent component. i.e., the handler in child component should be like this:

  <aura:handler name="clrValues" event="c:ClearValues" action="{!c.clear}"/>

--UPDATE--

I think a better approach for parent-to-child communication is to use <aura:method> as listed in lightning docs and here

To do this, you should define a method in child component like this:

  <aura:method name="sampleMethod" action="{!c.clear}" access="PUBLIC"> 

You should then have an id when you refer it inside your parent component like this:

  <c:ChildComponent textValue="test" aura:id="cComp"/>

Then in the clear method of the parent component, you should invoke the child method like this:

 var childCmp = component.find("cComp")
 childCmp.sampleMethod();