Matching prosodic and sound features: Performance of Down's Syndrome preschoolers

Eight Down's Syndrome children between the ages of 2.2 and 3.75 yr (X̄ = 2.73) participated in a study designed to determine if children with intellectual and language delay would show any consistent patterns in their imitations of adult vocalizations that were systematically varied in pitch, duration, and loudness. This performance was compared with the learner's proficiency in imitating speech sounds. Results yielded no overall relationship between learner's performance in the prosodic task and performance in the task using speech sounds as stimuli. All children matched at least some of the prosodic features examined. However, no particular prosodic features appeared more likely than others to be imitated. Results are discussed in terms of intersubject variability and the possible use of prosodic features as imitative stimuli in the early components of a communication interaction strategy.