Rhythmic Ability in Children and the Effects of Age, Sex, and Tempo

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the differentiation, if any, of young children's rhythmic ability that movement frequency (tempo), sex, and age produce. Rhythmic ability was analyzed into its two components, namely, rhythmic accuracy and rhythmic maintenance. The study compared the effect of two tempos, sex, and age on rhythmic accuracy and rhythmic maintenance and examined the association between them. The sample was 170 children (85 boys and 85 girls) between 6 to 9 years old (M= 7.9, SD= 0.9), who were attending the first three grades of public elementary schools in Athens, Greece, and had no extracurricular sports experience. There were no significant differences in performance on rhythmic accuracy and rhythmic maintenance between boys and girls for fast and slow tempos, while age was a significant differentiating factor at the slow tempo but not at the fast tempo. Rhythmic and rhythmic maintenance performances were better at the fast tempo than at the slow one. Rhythmic accuracy performance was better than rhythmic maintenance performance at both tempos. These findings lead to the conclusion that further examination of rhythmic ability performance is required, focusing on aspects of rhythmic maintenance under different tempos and across all children's ages, with varying motor experience.

The Effects of Rhythm Training on Tennis Performance

“…Because the interval of preferred tempo was in correspondence with the interval of the fast tempo test, the participants performed better at fast tempo than at slow tempo. This result is in accordance with the findings of previous investigations (Ellis, 1992; Zachopoulou et al, 2000; Mastrokalou and Hatziharitos, 2007). …”

Age-related differences in predictive response timing in children: Evidence from regularly relative to irregularly paced reaction time performance

“…Indirect evidence for this hypothesis is drawn from developmental studies that investigated children's abilities to synchronize with rhythmic patterns (Mastrokalou & Hatziharistos, 2007;McAuley & White, 2011). Synchronizing involves temporal encoding abilities that might not have been fully developed yet in young children.…”

“…Synchronizing involves temporal encoding abilities that might not have been fully developed yet in young children. Synchronizing at isochronously (fixed) visual or auditory stimulus rates around 800 to 1500 ms is found to be sensitive in identifying age-related differences in children samples of 3 to 12 years (Kumai & Sugai, 1997;Mastrokalou & Hatziharistos, 2007;McAuley, Jones, Holub, Johnston, & Miller, 2006;Sasaki, 1997). In these studies, time differences between a child's response and the onset of the rhythmic pulse were calculated with shorter differences indicating better synchronizing.…”

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Personal and Rhythmic‐Motor‐Activity Tempo in Children: A Twin Study

“…We needed to pay attention to individual differences in terms of not only the rhythmic motor activity tempo but also rhythmic motor activity stability in children. Developmental changes in rhythmic motor activity have been previously observed (Debrabant, Gheysen, Vingerhoets, & Van Waelvelde, ; Drake et al, ; Mastrokalou & Hatziharistos, ; McAuley, Jones, Holub, Johnston, & Miller, ; Provasi & Bobin‐Bègue, ; Sasaki, ), with the personal tempo of a child of around 4 years of age being much shorter (0.4 s; Drake et al, ; McAuley et al, ; Provasi & Bobin‐Bègue, ) than that of an adult (McAuley et al, ; Vanneste, Pouthas, & Wearden, ). Although developmental changes in the stability of rhythmic motor activity have been reported to be consistent in previous studies (Drake et al, ; Provasi & Bobin‐Bègue, ), relatively little evidence is available for rhythmic motor activity in children.…”