Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Dec 1;154(6):3556-3567.
doi: 10.1121/10.0022571.

Fathers' unmodulated prosody in child-directed speech

Maria V Kondaurova  1 , Mark VanDam  2 , Qi Zheng  3 , Bianca Welikson  1
Affiliations

Fathers' unmodulated prosody in child-directed speech

Maria V Kondaurova et al. J Acoust Soc Am. .

Abstract

Mothers and fathers modify prosodic characteristics of child-directed speech relative to adult-directed speech. Evidence suggests that mothers and fathers may differ in how they use child-directed speech as communicative partners. Thus, fathers create communicative challenges during father-child interaction that facilitate the child's adaptation to a wider potential range of interlocutors. In this paper, speech production differences are examined between mothers and fathers in child-directed speech to toddlers as compared to adult-directed speech. Using a longitudinal, large-scale design of audio recordings in naturalistic environments and automatic speech processing techniques, it was found that mothers, but not fathers, increased their fundamental frequency when addressing their toddlers. The results suggest that fathers do not modulate the prosody of their speech in the same way as mothers when communicating with their toddlers. Findings have implications for emotional and communicative practices of fathers compared to mothers and the differential role each plays in child development.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
The visual representation of utterance shows (a) F0 (Hz) height by mother and father in CDS and ADS and (b) the change in F0 height characteristics in semitones between CDS and ADS by mother and father.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abkarian, G. G. , Dworkin, J. P. , and Abkarian, A. K. (2003). “ Fathers’ speech to their children: Perfect pitch or tin ear?,” Fathering 1, 27–50.10.3149/fth.0101.27 - DOI
    1. Amano, S. , Nakatani, T. , and Kondo, T. (2006). “ Fundamental frequency of infants’ and parents’ utterances in longitudinal recordings,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 119(3), 1636–1647.10.1121/1.2161443 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ambrose, S. E. , VanDam, M. , and Moeller, M. P. (2014). “ Linguistic input, electronic media, and communication outcomes of toddlers with hearing loss,” Ear Hear. 35(2), 139–147.10.1097/AUD.0b013e3182a76768 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ambrose, S. E. , Walker, E. A. , Unflat-Berry, L. M. , Oleson, J. J. , and Moeller, M. P. (2015). “ Quantity and quality of caregivers’ linguistic input to 18-month and 3-year-old children who are hard of hearing,” Ear Hear. 36(1), 48S–59S.10.1097/AUD.0000000000000209 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arjmandi, M. K. , Houston, D. , and Dilley, L. C. (2022). “ Variability in quantity and quality of early linguistic experience in children with cochlear implants: Evidence from analysis of natural auditory environments,” Ear Hear. 43(2), 685–698.10.1097/AUD.0000000000001136 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources