| Popis: |
Infant-directed speech (IDS) is the speech register used when interacting with infants. Pitch contours are a salient aspect of IDS and facilitate infant language and socio-communicative development. Little research investigates pitch contours within the context of socio-communication or language deficits, such as infants at high-risk (HR) for Autism Spectrum Disorder (autism). The aim of this study was to characterise pitch contours used by mothers when interacting with HR infants compared to mothers interacting with low-risk (LR) infants. 18 mothers and their 12-month-old infant (12m, 6f) participated in 15-minute recorded interactions. Autism risk was assessed via parent and observer-report. Pearson product-moment correlations were performed to determine relationships between maternal pitch contours and autism risk. Increased risk for autism was associated with fewer utterances (r = -0.576, N = 18, p = 0.01) and fewer rising (r = -0.586, N = 18, p = 0.01), sinusoidal (r = -0.636, N = 18, p = 0.005), and flat contours (r = -0.679, N = 18, p = 0.01), and more complex (r = 0.584, N = 18, p = 0.01), rapid (r = 0.526, N = 18, p = 0.03), and u-shaped contours (r = 0.619, N = 18, p = 0.02). These preliminary data suggest that mothers of HR infants use different patterns of pitch contours than LR mothers. Further assessment of IDS used with HR infants is warranted to identify at what stage IDS patterns deviate between groups. |
