Prosodic aspects of motherese: effects on gaze and responsiveness in developmentally disabled children

This study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of using voice tones (prosody) typical of "motherese" (O. K. Garnica, 1977, in C. E. Snow & C. A. Ferguson (Eds.), Talking to Children: Language Input and Acquisition, pp. 63-88, Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press) on responsiveness and eye gaze in children with severe handicaps. Specifically, two conditions, "motherese" and "conversational" voice tones, were compared. The current study presents data from naturalistic observations of six children, and controlled experimental manipulations with four children. The results of the naturalistic observations in Study 1 suggested a positive relationship between the use of voice tones typical of "motherese" and responsiveness and eye gaze. Further analysis using an alternating treatments design in Study 2 revealed similar results. Specifically, the use of prosody associated with "motherese" showed increased levels of eye gaze when compared to the use of "conversational tones." The results suggest the importance of considering normal development in analyzing social and teaching interactions between teachers and severely handicapped children.