Understanding of Temporal Constructions by Kindergarten Children

Summary

It was hypothesized that young children experience considerable difficulty understanding temporal markers, but that instruction aimed at reducing this lack of understanding can be successful even with very young children. The Ss in the major part of this research were 85 kindergarten children, male and female, ages 5:4 to 6:8 (mean IQ = 99.4). Criterion tests measuring the understanding of eight selected temporal contingencies were constructed in addition to lesson materials for the teaching of the temporal markers.

The results indicated that contingencies where order of mention of actions was the same as the order in which they were to be executed were consistently easier than the contingencies where the reverse was true. Significant gains as a function of training were observed in six of the eight constructions.