Preschoolers' imitation of intonation contours

This study evaluated normally developing preschoolers' imitation of intonation contours modeled in a sentence elicitation task. Three intonation contours (declarative, interrogative, and monotone) were presented to 3- and 5-year-old children. Acoustic analyses using the Visi-Pitch and Apple IIe computer system, along with perceptual ratings, measured the extent to which preschoolers imitated a modeled intonation contour. The results indicated that, as a group, the children were perceived to imitate or partially imitate the preceding intonation contour modeled by the adult. The 5-year-old children imitated modeled contours more frequently than did the 3-year-old children. In contrast, the 3-year-old children primarily partially imitated the intonation contours. Further analysis revealed that between-group differences were due largely to accuracy in imitating the interrogative contour. These findings establish reference data on normal children and implicate the use of both acoustic and perceptual analyses in order to develop and interpret intervention strategies aimed at children with prosodic problems.