ERIC Number: EJ1453959
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Sep
Pages: 26
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-0009
EISSN: EISSN-1469-7602
Mothers' and Fathers' Infant-Directed Speech Have Similar Acoustic Properties, but These Are Not Associated with Direct or Indirect Measures of Word Comprehension in 8-Month-Old Infants
Journal of Child Language, v51 n6 p1424-1449 2023
Previous research on infant-directed speech (IDS) and its role in infants' language development has largely focused on mothers, with fathers being investigated scarcely. Here we examine the acoustics of IDS as compared to adult-directed speech (ADS) in Norwegian mothers and fathers to 8-month-old infants, and whether these relate to direct (eye-tracking) and indirect (parental report) measures of infants' word comprehension. Forty-five parent-infant dyads participated in the study. Parents (24 mothers, 21 fathers) were recorded reading a picture book to their infant (IDS), and to an experimenter (ADS), ensuring identical linguistic context across speakers and registers. Results showed that both mothers' and fathers' IDS had exaggerated prosody, expanded vowel spaces, as well as more variable and less distinct vowels. We found no evidence that acoustic features of parents' speech were associated with infants' word comprehension. Potential reasons for the lack of such a relationship are discussed.
Descriptors: Mothers, Fathers, Parent Child Relationship, Picture Books, Eye Movements, Infants, Language Variation, Acoustics, Speech Communication, Language Processing, Vowels, Reading Aloud to Others, Intonation, Suprasegmentals
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A