ABSTRACT
In lay and scientific circles alike, timing activities in human adults tend to be spontaneously associated with behaviours that are mediated by highly accurate systems of measurement, themselves based on elaborate concepts of time. In the human species, however, as in others, there are forms of adjustment to time which do not require these sophisticated cognitive tools. This chapter deals with early temporal regulations which are observable in the first weeks of life and even, for some, during the prenatal period. No review of the studies on the way(s) these regulations evolve or are acquired can hope to be exhaustive. For this reason, I have opted to focus on a certain number of examples in three distinct fields from a developmental perspective.
