The Effects of Age and Infant Hearing Status on Maternal Use of Prosodic Cues for Clause Boundaries in Speech

Abstract

The results suggest that acoustic cues correlated with clause boundaries are available in maternal speech to HI infants. Their exaggeration relative to adult-directed speech suggests that mothers' use of infant-directed speech is a natural behavior regardless of infant hearing status. Finally, mothers modify speech prosody according to their children's age and hearing experience.

Spontaneous vocal matching in mothers and their hearing impaired infants with cochlear implants : a quantitative analysis.

“…The current study expands on past research (Chin et al, 2012;Cleary et al, 2002;Dillon et al, 2004;Ertmer & Goffman, 2011;Ertmer et al, 1997;Nakata et al, 2012;Peng et al, 2008;Sehgal et al, 1998) by demonstrating that maternal ability to imitate is affected when they have an infant with hearing loss. Overall, these results agree and extend previous research suggesting that maternal speech is affected by infant hearing status (Bergeson, 2011;Fagan et al, 2014;Kondaurova & Bergeson, 2011;Kondaurova, Bergeson, & Kitamura, 2013;Tait et al, 2007).…”

“…This agrees with previous literature that shows maternal speech to HI infants is affected by infant hearing loss (Chen, 1996;Cheskin, 1981;Cross, JohnsonMorris, & Nienhuys, 1980;Kondaurova & Bergeson, 2011;Kondaurova et al, 2012;Kondaurova, Bergeson, & Kitamura, 2013;Kondaurova, Bergeson, & Xu, 2013;Kondaurova et al, 2015;Kondaurova, Blank, Zheng, Abu Zhaya, & Seidl, 2016;Nienhuys, Cross, & Horsborough, 1984;Wieland, Burnham, Kondaurova, Bergeson, & Dilley, 2015). Previous research has demonstrated that mothers use shorter utterances, exaggerated pitch characteristics, and a slower speaking rate when interacting with their HI infants (Kondaurova, Bergeson, & Xu, 2013).…”

“…This study's results also showed that mothers in both the HI and the NH groups increased their numbers of utterances over time, which is consistent with previous literature that shows mothers of hearing-impaired infants change their speech patterns over time (Bergeson, 2011;Kondaurova & Bergeson, 2011;Kondaurova, Bergeson, & Xu, 2013;Kondaurova et al, 2015), as well as with research that demonstrates that mothers in general tend to expand and extend on infant utterances as their infants age (Cross et al, 1980).…”

“…Previous research has demonstrated that mothers use shorter utterances, exaggerated pitch characteristics, and a slower speaking rate when interacting with their HI infants (Kondaurova, Bergeson, & Xu, 2013). Past research has also shown that mothers adjust prosodic features of speech according to infant hearing experience rather than the infant's chronological age when addressing their HI infants (Kondaurova & Bergeson, 2011;Kondaurova, Bergeson, & Kitamura, 2013). Research has also shown that mothers' vowel duration and pitch change in speech to HI infants were different compared to their normal hearing peers (Kondaurova & Bergeson, 2011).…”

“…Past research has also shown that mothers adjust prosodic features of speech according to infant hearing experience rather than the infant's chronological age when addressing their HI infants (Kondaurova & Bergeson, 2011;Kondaurova, Bergeson, & Kitamura, 2013). Research has also shown that mothers' vowel duration and pitch change in speech to HI infants were different compared to their normal hearing peers (Kondaurova & Bergeson, 2011). Other studies demonstrated that mothers use shorter and less complex utterances, and are more likely to use restricted or limited vocabulary compared to mothers with NH peers (Cheskin, 1981;Fagan et al, 2014;Koester et al, 1998).…”