Early perception of prosody in atypical language acquisition

Infants’ early sensitivity to prosody has supported the view that prosody might facilitate language acquisition. Recent research has suggested that early prosodic development is crucially shaped by language experience. However, typical and atypically developing infants may vary in their language experience, and it is largely unknown whether and how early prosodic development differs in these two populations. Therefore, the potential of prosody to scaffold language learning in atypical development remains to be determined. I will present findings from speech perception experiments focusing on the perception of stress and intonation patterns during the first year of life, in infants at-risk for language impairments and infants with Down Syndrome. The early perception abilities from the atypical groups will be compared to those of their typically developing peers. The results suggest different developmental paths for early perception of stress and intonation across groups, and highlight the importance of prosody also in atypical language acquisition. Moreover, the decrease in early sensitivity to prosody in older atypically developing infants pinpoints a crucial developmental window for early interventions using prosody to support language learning in this population.

5-line plan of the presentation:

• Early sensitivity to prosody and early prosodic development

• Results from experiments on the perception of stress in atypically developing infants

• Results from experiments on the perception of intonation in atypically developing infants

• Comparing prosodic abilities in atypical groups and typically developing infants

• Discussion and implications for remediation and intervention strategies to support language acquisition