Discourse and Intonation Development in the First-Word Period

The purpose of the current study was to examine the vocal productions of young children acquiring Standard American English and to determine whether intonation production is influenced by discourse context and developmental level (i.e., age). Participants were 24 children with typically developing speech and language, ages 12 to 23 months. A cross-sectional design was used. Data were collected from language samples during 30to 40-minute play sessions. Child interactions were analyzed according to three discourse categories: co-participatory, initiation, and narrowed focus. Intonation was analyzed using measures of accent range, contour inventory size and contour maturity. The results supported a previous finding that the contour inventory measure of intonation is consistently more useful in demonstrating differences in production related to contour direction and discourse context. An analysis of the contour maturity of intonation revealed that falling contours were more stable than rises, and that rises were produced with more stability in communicative contexts. KEY-WORDS : INTONATION DEVELOPMENT, DISCOURSE DEVELOPMENT, PRODUCTION, TODDLERS * Heather L. Balog, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Wayne State University, 207 Rackham Building, 60 Farnsworth, Detroit, MI 48202, E-mail: [email protected] nfance n◦ 3/2009 | pp. 293-304 294 Heather L. BALOG, Felicia D. ROBERTS, David SNOW