Production of temporal terms by 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children

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Abstract

This study investigated changes in the production of temporal terms over the preschool years. Ninety-three parents of 3-, 4- and 5-year-old children completed a questionnaire in which they indicated their child's production, and accurate use, of a list of temporal words. The results suggest that use and command emerge at different ages for different terms. Correlation and difference analyses were conducted to document the pattern of development. Words representing the present (e.g., now) and very general temporal terms (e.g., ‘later’) were produced and used accurately by the majority of even the youngest children. Some terms describing specific timeframes (e.g., ‘yesterday’) were also produced from a young age but demonstrated more gradual acquisition of appropriate use across the preschool years. Other terms appeared in children's vocabularies only later in the preschool years, and were inaccurately used even by the oldest children (e.g., ‘hours’). These findings provide an initial survey of reported child competence with temporal words that has implications for research, education, and judicial contexts.

Section snippets

The current study

Given the relatively sparse nature of information on temporal term acquisition in childhood, particularly with respect to relationships between temporal terms, the present research aimed to document parents’ judgements about their children's production of a range of temporal terms. The questionnaire was designed to identify patterns of use and competence amongst 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children. Preschool-aged children were chosen based on evidence from previous experimental studies of changes

Participants

Parents of children aged 3, 4, and 5 years were contacted through details provided on the Early Cognitive Development Unit (University of Queensland) database and four day care centres in the Brisbane area. The children all had English as a first language, and families were primarily Caucasian Australian and middle-class. Parents recruited through day care centres received and returned the questionnaire to the centre, and those recruited through the database received and returned the

Results

Preliminary analyses revealed that the ‘approximate age of first use’ question was criticised by many parents on the basis that their estimation was highly unreliable. Many parents did not answer this question for some or all of the terms provided, or qualified their written answers with notes or question marks. In light of this it was considered inappropriate to analyse this, and thus it will not be mentioned further here. Data regarding frequency of use of terms is also not reported to avoid

Discussion

This study investigated preschool children's production of 18 temporal terms using a parental report questionnaire. The resulting data reveal the production of a range of terms by children at 3, 4, and 5 years of age, and the accuracy (as judged by parents) of this use. This methodology allowed ratings of use and accuracy to be compared across age groups to reveal age-related change, and ratings of different terms to be correlated and directly compared. These results inform which temporal terms

Acknowledgement

Prof. Thomas Suddendorf was supported by ARC Discovery Grant DP0770113.

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