Abstracts Language, Literature, and Linguistic

“When Did That Happen?”: Developmental Shifts in Children’s Interpretation and Use of Temporal Language

by Deborah Zonenschein Kamliot

Children’s understanding of temporal concepts, such as “when” an event occurred, develops gradually between 4-9 years of age, playing a key role in their cognitive and linguistic growth. By age 4 children begin to comprehend basic time-related concepts but continue to struggle with understanding and appropriately using temporal terms (e.g., before, after) until middle childhood. Though children’s temporal understanding has been previously examined, previous research has neglected some of the most linguistically simple but conceptually complex temporal questions, those asking “when” actions took place. “When” questions are ambiguous given that they may refer to any number of time points (before, after, or during something else, relative to now or a time in the past or future, time of day, week, month, or year, etc.). The current study examined developmental differences in children’s responses to “when” questions and the use and accuracy of other temporal terms to clarify their responses across a key developmental period for children’s temporal understanding.Four-to-nine-year-old children (N = 231; Mage = 6.41, SD = 1.63) completed a 30-minute Zoom session with an interviewer wherein they watched pre-recorded videos of two stories. Each story showed Character A playing with three toys in sequence. Character B played with a toy at the same time Character A played with the second toy, introducing a simultaneous event to the sequence. Following each story, the interviewer asked “when” each action in the sequence occurred (e.g., “when did [Character A] play with the X?”). Children’s responses were coded for use of temporal terms (e.g., before, after, first, last, at the beginning, at the end) and each term was coded for accuracy. Children were more likely to use the term “last” (35%) and “first” (33%) to refer to sequential actions than “before” (10%), “after” (35%), or “second” (25%). Linear regression was used to examine children’s use of temporal terms. The overall model was significant, b = 0.16, t (228) = 4.242, p < 0.001 indicating that age significantly predicted children’s use of temporal terms when responding to “when” questions and the same pattern was seen when examining children’s accuracy in using temporal terms b = 0.268, t (228) = 6.701, p < 0.001. Results suggest that as children age, they become more accurate in using temporal terms to answer “when” questions. These findings align with existing literature indicating that although children in early childhood can respond to some sequencing questions, their comprehension of temporal terms is still developing. The current findings provide insight into the development of children’s temporal understanding and their ability to answer “when” questions and suggests comprehension should not be assumed based on term use.