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Fathers' unmodulated prosody in child-directed speech
Maria V Kondaurova1, Mark VanDam2, Qi Zheng3
1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville, 301 Life Sciences Building, Louisville, Kentucky 40292, USA.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
|December 1, 2023
Summary
Fathers and mothers use different speech patterns with toddlers. Mothers raise their voice pitch when talking to children, but fathers do not, suggesting distinct parental roles in child development.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
- Speech-Language Pathology
Background:
- Parental speech characteristics, known as child-directed speech (CDS), are modified compared to adult-directed speech.
- Mothers and fathers may exhibit distinct patterns in their use of CDS.
- Fathers' speech patterns might pose communicative challenges, aiding children's broader social adaptation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate speech production differences between mothers and fathers in CDS directed at toddlers.
- To compare CDS with adult-directed speech (ADS) within each parental group.
- To analyze prosodic modifications, specifically fundamental frequency (f0), in parental speech.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal, large-scale study utilizing audio recordings in naturalistic home environments.
- Application of automatic speech processing techniques for quantitative analysis.
- Comparison of speech samples from mothers and fathers addressing toddlers versus adults.
Main Results:
- Mothers significantly increased their fundamental frequency when speaking to toddlers compared to adults.
- Fathers did not show a significant increase in fundamental frequency when addressing toddlers.
- This indicates a difference in prosodic modulation between mothers and fathers in CDS.
Conclusions:
- Fathers and mothers modulate the prosody of their speech differently when interacting with toddlers.
- These findings suggest distinct roles for mothers and fathers in shaping children's communicative development.
- Understanding these differences has implications for parental practices and early childhood communication.
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