Poster #45 - What do preschoolers know about clocks: The clock drawing test in 3- to 6-year olds

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

The Clock Drawing Test (CDT) is a neuropsychological assessment tool, traditionally used in adult populations as a measurement of cognitive and functional status. The CDT has only recently been used to study typically developing children from the age of 6 upwards (Cohen, Ricci, Kibby, & Edmonds, 2000). The current study investigated the developmental trends of clock face drawing in 3 to 6 year olds, which will contribute to our understanding of the evolution in clock knowledge in children. This knowledge is a prerequisite for telling time.
As part of a larger study of the development of time understanding in preschoolers, clock face drawings were collected from 165 3-6 year old children (78 females, M = 54 months). The testing sessions were recorded and transcribed. Children's receptive vocabulary and pattern reasoning ability were measured with the PPVT-4 and a subtest of Kaufman's ABC (pattern reasoning or receptive vocabulary scores were not available for 5 children). Drawings were scored using a point system developed for the analysis of clock drawing in children 6 to 12, modified for the younger age group. Transcripts of the testing sessions were scored both for children's verbally communicated knowledge of clocks and for experimenter prompting. Both drawing and transcript scores included knowledge of clock shape, hands, and numbers (see Table 1 for an overview of scoring).
One-way analyses of variance were conducted of drawing score and transcript score by age group. Preschoolers' knowledge of clocks as measured by both the drawing score and transcript score increased significantly with age (Fdrawing(6, 158) = 27.6, p < .000, ηp2 = .51, Ftranscript(6, 158) = 4.9, p < .000, ηp2 = .16). The youngest children demonstrated more clock knowledge verbally than via drawing, whereas older children demonstrated more clock knowledge via drawing than verbally (see Figure 1). Verbal knowledge of clocks (transcript score) was significantly correlated to experimenter prompting (r (158) = .32, p < .000). When partial correlations controlling for age and experimenter prompting were conducted, the clock drawing score was only marginally related to the transcript score (r (156) = .16, p = .04); the clock drawing score was significantly related to pattern reasoning (r (156) = .22, p = .005); and the transcript score was significantly related to receptive vocabulary (r (156) = .25, p = .002).
These findings suggest that different cognitive skills are involved in the children's verbal reports of clock knowledge and their clock face drawings. Motor and visuopatial skills are likely a factor in the drawing score, whereas verbal skills influence the transcript score. The development of clock knowledge delineated in this study has implications for the curricular goal of teaching children to tell time.

Authors

• Emily Wollenberg, Rutgers University - New Brunswick
  Presenting Author

• Estelle Mayhew, Rutgers University - New Brunswick
  Non-Presenting Author

• Judith A Hudson, Rutgers University
  Non-Presenting Author