Teachers, not parents, are able to predict time processing skills in preschoolers

Abstract

Time processing difficulties are associated with developmental disorders. Questionnaires for assessing children's sense of time are available from primary school, but we lack valid proxy‐report tools for younger children, who are not able to complete self‐reports. This study aimed to assess the criterion validity of a questionnaire investigating preschoolers’ sense of time from the points of view of their parents and teachers. One hundred seventy preschoolers were included in the sample. Their parents and teachers completed the Sense of Time Questionnaire, and the children were administered time reproduction and time discrimination tasks, both concurrently and 7 months later. The assessment of preschoolers’ sense of time reported by teachers, but not by parents, predicted the children's time processing skills both concurrently and longitudinally. The teacher version of the Sense of Time Questionnaire constitutes a valid instrument for assessing and predicting preschoolers’ time processing skills and can be used for clinical and research purposes Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Time processing difficulties are associated with developmental disorders such as ADHD and dyscalculia. Early assessment of time processing skills is important for clinical (e.g., screening) and research purposes. We do not have valid questionnaires for assessing sense of time in young children. What the present study adds? The sense of time ability reported by teachers predicts preschoolers’ time processing skills. The sense of time ability reported by parents does not predicts preschoolers’ time processing skills. The Sense of Time Questionnaire is a valid instrument for investigating time processing skills of 4–6 aged children.

Teachers' report of sense of time in kindergarten predicts children's time‐processing skills in first grade

“…This evidence further endorses Tobia et al (2019) result that the Sense of time questionnaire filled in by teachers is a valid instrument for assessing and predicting young children's time‐processing abilities. In particular, extending the longitudinal investigation to the end of 1st grade and including the assessment of an additional task (comparison of durations) and of an additional proxy‐evaluation of time‐related skills (by primary school teachers), the present study supports the validity of the Sense of time questionnaire‐teacher for investigating time‐processing skills in young children.…”

“…The score of the teacher's version of the questionnaire predicted children's performance in time‐processing concurrently as well as 7 months later, whereas questionnaires filled in by parents were not significantly related to the experimental observations. Also, the sense of time assessed by teachers predicted time discrimination better than time reproduction (Tobia et al, 2019). This result suggests a link between the sense of time assessed by close adults (particularly teachers) and children's processing of durations, at least within a brief (7‐month) time frame in preschool years.…”

“…The main aim of this study was to assess if a questionnaire measuring the sense of time administered to teachers and parents at the beginning of the last year of kindergarten—that in Italy lasts 3 years—can predict children's time‐processing skills at the end of 1st grade. Despite the teacher version of this questionnaire was able to predict children's time‐processing skills from the beginning (mean age = 4.78 years) to the end (mean age = 5.36 years) of the last year of kindergarten (Tobia et al, 2019), this association could change after a year of formal schooling, considering that children's new numeracy (e.g., use of counting; Droit‐Volet, 2016) and time‐related (e.g., knowledge of formal timing symbols; Hamamouche & Cordes, 2020) skills could modify the strategies used to respond to the time‐processing tasks, and the improvement of attentional skills, as well as executive resources, could importantly change their time‐processing skills (Droit‐Volet, 2016). Despite these changes in 1st graders, we expect their time‐processing skills to be significantly predicted by the teacher version of the Sense of time questionnaire, but not by the parent version, as happened in the past shorter longitudinal study (Tobia et al, 2019); this would be also in line with the weaknesses usually identified in parent reports (e.g., social desirability, scarce objectivity; De Los Reyes & Kadzin, 2005).…”

“…However, to assess the validity of these questionnaires, the congruence with children's performance in behavioural tasks should be considered, and it has been rarely done in the past. An exception is a work that analysed the capability of the 'Sense of time questionnaire' (Tobia et al, 2019), a questionnaire assessing children's time-related skills via proxy reports (parents and teachers), of predicting preschoolers' performance in time discrimination and time reproduction. The score of the teacher's version of the questionnaire predicted children's performance in time-processing concurrently as well as 7 months later, whereas questionnaires filled in by parents were not significantly related to the experimental observations.…”

‘No idea of time’: Parents report differences in autistic children’s behaviour relating to time in a mixed-methods study

“…However, parental report can only provide insight across a limited range of contexts and perception of the child’s behaviour will invariably be shaped by knowledge of the child’s diagnosis ( Ringer et al, 2020 ). Triangulation would be valuable in future work with the perspective of teachers ( Tobia et al, 2019 ), and the children themselves providing a more complete picture of the impact of timing on everyday life. Third, the groups in this study were not IQ matched, so it is not possible to discount differences in intellectual functioning as a mediating factor in the differences in behaviours related to time reported here.…”