Spontaneous motor tempo and rhythmical synchronisation were studied in 2½-to 4-year-old children. Children were tested in three sessions, each of which included three consecutive tasks: first, spontaneous manual tapping tempo, second, synchronisation to external tempo, followed by spontaneous manual tapping tempo again. Results showed that regular spontaneous manual tapping tempo could be observed in children as young as 2½ years. Moreover, children could slow down their tap rhythm when the auditory stimulation became slower. Anticipating sound and adjusting their motor response to time interval was easier for children at the age of 4 years than for younger children. Consequently, it seems easier for the former to estimate the time interval than for the latter. Data referring to different clock models and new perspectives to conduct research on temporal studies in child development will be discussed.

International audienc

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The central nervous system must continuously analyze and process temporal information to interact adequately with the environment. The complex nature and the multiplicity of time scales make the associated cognitive processes both interesting and difficult to understand. Early childhood is a particularly important time for the study of short durations (i.e. durations of less than one second). Rhythmic behavioral activities such as sucking, kicking and crawling are associated, from the moment of birth, with particular stages of neuromuscular maturation. This temporary behavior, involving non-coordinated movements, eventually changes to voluntary and coordinated motor behavior (Thelen 1979). Temporal contingency is also of prime importance in intermodal perception (Schmuckler, 1996; Lewkowicz, 2000, 2003). Therefore, the developmental pattern in the temporal processing of young children is an interesting question. Short duration processes are studied using an isochronous sequence of intervals. The frequency of these intervals is usually called the tempo 1. Results show that when the number of intervals in a sequence is increased a specific interval can be more precisely processed, and that this is related to the amount of information available (Drake & Botte, 1993). That is, the more intervals produced, the more precise is its memory trace and the greater the sensitivity. The accuracy of interval processing can be assessed by distinguishing one tempo from another (i.e. a discrimination task). Thus, tempo discrimination tasks and, more specifically, the discrimination threshold (i.e. the Tempo Discrimination in 3-and 4-year-old children: performances and threshold