Age-related changes in prosodic features of maternal speech to prelingually deaf infants with cochlear implants

Maria V. Kondauroava, Tonya R. Bergeson, Tonya Bergeson-Dana

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

<div class="line" id="line-5"> This study investigated prosodic and structural characteristics of infant&hyphen;directed speech to hearing&hyphen;impaired infants as they gain hearing experience with a cochlear implant over a 12&hyphen;month period of time. Mothers were recorded during a play interaction with their HI infants (N = 27, mean age 18.4 months) at 3, 6, and 12 months postimplantation. Two separate control groups of mothers with age&hyphen;matched normal&hyphen;hearing infants (NH&hyphen;AM) (N = 21, mean age 18.1 months) and hearing experience&hyphen;matched normal&hyphen;hearing infants (NH&hyphen;EM) (N = 24, mean age 3.1 months) were recorded at three testing sessions. Mothers produced less exaggerated pitch characteristics, a larger number of syllables per utterance, and faster speaking rate when interacting with NH&hyphen;AM as compared to HI infants. Mothers also produced more syllables and demonstrated a trend suggesting faster speaking rate in speech to NH&hyphen;EM relative to HI infants. Age&hyphen;related modifications included decreased pitch standard deviation and increased number of syllables in speech to NH&hyphen;AM infants and increased number of syllables in speech to HI and NH&hyphen;EM infants across the 12&hyphen;month period. These results suggest that mothers are sensitive to the hearing status of their infants and modify characteristics of infant&hyphen;directed speech over time.</div><div class="line" id="line-16"> <br/></div>
Original languageAmerican English
JournalInfancy
Volume18
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013

Disciplines

  • Communication Sciences and Disorders

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