Phonatory and phonetic characteristics of prelinguistic vocal development in cri du chat syndrome

A longitudinal case study of a child with cri du chat syndrome was undertaken to provide descriptive data on early phonatory and phonetic development in comfort state vocalizations. Vocal samples collected when the child was between 8 and 26 months of age were analyzed using perceptual and acoustic methods. Results indicated that the high vocal fundamental frequently documented in cries of infants with cri du chat syndrome was also a characteristic of comfort state vocalizations of this child. An analysis of intonation patterns indicated there was a predominance of falling intonation contours and limited interutterance variation of fundamental frequency. Phonetic development was quite delayed, with major acquisitions in babbling showing marked delay relative to chronological age. Acquisition of the first spoken word had not occurred by the age of twenty-six months. Results suggest that significant cognitive and/or motor delays may have an influence on the integrity of early vocal development, which calls into question the notion that babbling development proceeds relatively independently of other developmental domains.