Time processing impairments in preschoolers at risk of developing difficulties in mathematics

Abstract

The occurrence of time processing problems in individuals with Development Dyscalculia (DD) has favored the view of a general magnitude system devoted to both numerical and temporal information. Yet, this scenario has been partially challenged by studies indicating that time difficulties can be attributed to poor calculation or counting skills, which can support reasoning on time in school-aged children and adults. Here, we tackle this debate by exploring the performance of young children before they fully develop the symbolic number system. Preschoolers at risk of developing DD were compared with typically developing children in a series of tasks investigating time processing and in their 'sense of time', evaluated by parents and teachers. Results yielded a poorer performance in time reproduction of 5-second intervals and in time discrimination, as well as a weaker 'sense of time', in children at risk of DD. These findings provide evidence of a common magnitude system that would be responsible for deficits in both numerical and temporal domains, already at early stages of life.

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

“…The children's sense of time was assessed at Time 1 through a proxy‐report questionnaire administered to parents and teachers (Tobia et al ., ). The questionnaire consists of a 9‐item scale (Appendix) investigating children's time‐related habits and skills (‘My child/pupil autonomously realizes when a daily routine is approaching (e.g., lunch time; getting ready for outdoor activities)’) and their use and comprehension of temporal words (‘My child/My pupil’ understands terms such as ‘before’ and ‘after’); four filler items for di sguising the purpose of the questionnaire were also included.…”

“…In fact, a way to verify the validity of proxy‐report questionnaires for assessing sense of time is investigating the agreement between time‐related questionnaires and behavioural tasks by assessing time processing. An exception is a study showing time processing impairments both via parent and teacher questionnaires and via behavioural assessment in preschoolers at risk of developing difficulties in mathematics (Tobia et al ., ). Considering school‐aged children, a correlation between the score of a parent‐report questionnaire assessing sense of time and a time processing measure (i.e., inter‐tap interval in a free tapping task) has been identified in children with ASD (Isaksson et al ., ); similarly, Meaux and Chelonis () found a concurrent correlation between the ‘It's about time’ score and time reproduction in children.…”

“…In particular, this 7‐month‐long longitudinal study investigated the predictive power of the two versions of the Sense of Time Questionnaire administered at Time 1 with respect to two tasks assessing time processing skills in preschoolers administered both at Time 1 and at Time 2: time reproduction and time discrimination. These tasks have been used in the past, showing their suitability for school‐aged children and preschoolers (Odic, ; Tobia et al ., ).…”

“…Time processing difficulties have been identified in association with developmental disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; Smith, Taylor, Warner Rogers, Newman, & Rubia, ; Walg, Hapfelmeier, El‐Wahsch, & Prior, ), developmental dyslexia (Casini, Pech‐Georgel, & Ziegler, ), developmental dyscalculia (Moll, Göbel, Gooch, Landerl, & Snowling, ), autism spectrum disorder (ASD; Isaksson et al ., ), and borderline intellectual functioning (Di Nuovo et al ., ). Considering children who are of preschool age, time processing problems have been found in individuals at risk of developing difficulties in mathematics (Tobia, Rinaldi, & Marzocchi, ).…”

“…This correlation can be considered to be the first evidence of the link between children's sense of time measured with proxy‐report questionnaires and time processing skills directly observed in children. However, a more accurate way to verify this link would be both concurrently and longitudinally analysing the capability of Sense of Time Questionnaires (Tobia et al ., ) to predict children's performance in time processing tasks.…”