Hearing Status and Prosody in Mother-Child Speech

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目的目的是研究儿童听力损失如何影响针对儿童和由儿童产生的言语的语用功能和韵律的发展变化。韵律是话语语用功能的重要线索，如标记疑问句、陈述句、请求句等。夸张的韵律是母亲对孩子说话的一个特点。它具有更高的整体音高，扩大音高范围，并使用独特的音高轮廓。这些特征用于表达情感，引导婴儿的注意力，促进言语感知和语言习得。使用NIH资助的4和60个月的年龄（R 01 DC 006681; R 01 DC 004300; P30 DC 004662）之间的母子互动的录音数据库，各种语用类的话语的流行率将进行评估，以确定在何种程度上母亲的讲话包括问题，声明，和其他种类的话语。这些话语将被分析的声学检查母亲如何使用韵律来表达语用功能，以及母亲如何调整自己的韵律，以他们的孩子的年龄和听力能力。一个平行的声学分析，将检查儿童的讲话，他们的母亲的语用功能，儿童如何使用韵律的发展和它是如何受到听力损失。儿童的语用和韵律言语发展取决于他们早期的听觉和语言经验，这些经验可能会受到听力损失和母亲语用语言使用的限制或影响。最后，还将分析母子互动，以评估发声时机的节奏协调发展。协调的母婴互动对许多发展成果都很重要。了解声音的相互作用如何受到听力损失的影响可能会导致改善补救方法。 公共卫生相关性：本项目旨在确定听力损失如何影响母亲和孩子之间语音互动的语用和韵律方面的发展。使用一个数据库的录音从纵向（4至60个月大）NIH资助的研究（R 01 DC 006681; R 01 DC 004300; P30 DC 04662）的母亲与他们的正常听力和听力受损的孩子，话语的语用功能将被编码，他们使用的韵律标记语用功能将进行声学分析。鉴于以前的研究表明，高质量的母子互动对听力正常儿童的各种发展结果的重要性，更好地了解听力损失影响这些互动的方式可能会导致改善补救方法，以及言语和语言结果。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The aim of this project is to examine how developmental changes in the pragmatic functions and prosody of speech directed to, and produced by, children is affected by children's hearing loss. Prosody is an important cue to the pragmatic function of speech, such as marking questions, statements, requests. Exaggerated prosody is a hallmark of mothers' speech to children. It has higher overall pitch, expanded pitch range, and uses distinctive pitch contours. These features are used to express emotion, guide infants' attention, and facilitate speech perception and language acquisition. Using an NIH-funded database of recordings of mother-child interactions between 4 and 60 months of age (R01DC006681; R01DC004300; P30DC004662), the prevalence of various pragmatic categories of utterances will be assessed to the determine the degree to which mothers speech consists of questions, statements, and other kinds of utterances. These utterances will then be analyzed acoustically to examine how mothers use prosody to express pragmatic function, and how mothers adapt their prosody to their child's age and hearing ability. A parallel acoustical analysis, will examine the pragmatic function of children's speech to their mothers, how children's use of prosody develops and how it is affected by hearing loss. Children's pragmatic and prosodic speech development depends on their early auditory and language experience, which may be limited or affected by hearing loss and their mothers' pragmatic language use. Finally, mother-child interactions will also be analyzed to assess the development of rhythmic coordination in the timing of vocalizations. Coordinated mother-child interaction is important for many developmental outcomes. Understanding how vocal interactions are affected by hearing loss may lead to improved methods of remediation. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project aims to identify how hearing loss affects the development of the pragmatic and prosodic aspects of vocal interaction between mothers and their children. Using a database of recordings from a longitudinal (4 to 60 months of age) NIH-funded study (R01DC006681; R01DC004300; P30DC04662) of mothers interacting with their normal hearing and hearing impaired children, the pragmatic function of utterances will be coded, and their use of prosody to mark pragmatic functions will be analyzed acoustically. Given previous research demonstrating the importance of quality mother-child interactions on various developmental outcomes in normal hearing children, a greater understanding of the ways in which hearing loss influences these interactions may lead to improved methods of remediation, and speech and language outcomes.