Changes in children's voices: the effect of cognitive cues

Variation in duration and frequency during two readings of each of four sentences by 15 normal 9- and 10-year-old children were compared. Instructions to the children included overt cues designed specifically to elicit durational and frequency changes. Children demonstrated increased sentence variability in their voices when they were cued. Specific key words in the four sentences were also analyzed and results indicated that semantic content in addition to parameter-specific cognitive cues provided a significant effect. The male 9 and 10-year-old subjects showed less variability in "no cue" readings than the females, but showed a greater increase in voice change during the "cognitive cue" readings. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.