Age-related changes in visual and auditory sustained attention in preschool-aged children

Abstract

Objective: The development of sustained attention in the preschool years is not yet fully understood. Delineating age-related changes of attentional proficiencies and deficiencies is important for understanding atypical developmental trajectories, specifically in neurodevelopmental disorders that are characterized by attentional difficulties. The objective of the current study was to develop preschool-appropriate measures for assessing sustained attention and to chart developmental changes in attention in early childhood. Method: Using adapted computerized paradigms, the present study investigated age-related changes in visual and auditory sustained attention in seventy typically developing children aged 3 to 6 years. Results: The results indicated that similar age-related gains in performance emerged across both visual and auditory attention tasks. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the adapted measures developed in this study are sensitive enough to capture developmental variations in attention performance.

• Sustained attention
• Preschool
• Assessment
• Inattention
• Development
• Early childhood
• Visual
• Auditory

This research was supported by grants to Professor Kim Cornish from the Canada Research Chairs Program and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Salary support was gratefully provided for Dr. Maria Rogers by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, the Ontario Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, and the Reva Gerstein Fellowship Program in Pediatric Psychology. Special thanks are extended to Dr. Joseph Rochford for his assistance with all statistical analyses. We also express our thanks to the all the families who took part in the study.