Duration perception: A Developmental Semiology from 2:6 to 13 Years, General Population versus Atypical, Assessment by Parental Questionnaire

Introduction
Perception of duration has a major impact on the child’s ability to manage everyday life. Usually, the perception of time is considered in its sequential component. To our knowledge, possible semiological markers for the capacity to apprehend temporal duration have not yet been explored. There are thus no existing tools either for its evaluation (in everyday life) or for the description of its development during childhood. We are thus largely in the dark about how the perception of duration develops during childhood.
Hypothesis
1) It is possible to track perception of duration using semiological markers in everyday life; 2) Children with developmental disorders can be expected to develop difficulties in this domain.
Method
We designed a questionnaire for parents using a Likert scale. The questionnaire was administered to 2 samples from 2:6 to 13 years: 827 in a general population and 297 in a mixed-psychopathological population recruited from the Mental Health Services network. We carried out a multinomial logistic regression and used percentiles curves (P5,50,95).
Results
In the general population, perception of duration is gradually acquired and full competence is attained by 9 years. The apprehension of sequential time is achieved by 4 years.
In the psychopathological sample, mean perception of temporal duration is delayed by 18 months and significant difficulties remain even at 13 years. The apprehension of sequential time is also delayed: even at 13 years it remains low (at percentile 95).
We have found no sex-related differences.
Discussion
Perception of duration is an important developmental feature which has not been taken into account until now. Semiological markers can be used to differentiate typically developing children from clinical populations as to their respective capacities to perceive temporal duration.