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

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 accuracy 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.