Visual and Auditory Temporal Processing in Elementary School Children

Abstract

Purpose. Temporal processing shows an evolutionary character in accordance with age and schooling. The purpose of this study is to analyze the role of temporal processing in children in different grades in primary school. Methods. 470 children (aged 5–13), in five school grades, were compared to a Temporal Order Judgment. Similar visual and auditory, linguistic, and nonlinguistic stimuli were presented to them. A three-factor repeated measure multivariate analysis of variance was used to examine the effects of Grade (1°vs.2°vs.3°vs.4°vs.5°) x Stimulus (Linguistic vs. Nonlinguistic) x Modality (Visual vs. Auditory). Results. These three factors have significant interactions. Auditory-nonlinguistic tasks were easier than auditory-linguistic tasks in every grade. Visual-nonlinguistic tasks were easier than visual-linguistic tasks in higher grades, and 1st grade differed significantly from the other school grades in all cases. The higher the school grade, the better the performance of TOJ tasks. Visual-linguistic tasks were easier than auditory-linguistic tasks. Conclusions. The present study provides evidence concerning the progressive nature of temporal processing among primary school children. This development trajectory is particularly noteworthy for students in lower primary school grades. Furthermore, the Temporal Order Judgment (TOJ) task exhibited robust experimental support, rendering it a valuable tool for assessing temporal processing within conventional school populations. This task offers the potential to assess TP across auditory and / or visual modalities, with diverse types of stimuli (linguistic vs. non-linguistic). Finally, the auditory modality, and especially the auditory linguistic modality, showed greater sensitivity depending on the school grade.