Acoustic Cue for Stress Perception in Kannada Speaking Children

Abstract

The perception of prosody is necessary to understand the intent of a spoken utterance, especially to appreciate the intricacies of a language. Prosody or the supra-segmental component is made up of stress (accent), intonation and the rhythmic (timing) patterns of language. Stress indicates the most prominent syllable/word in an utterance. Literature suggests language-specific acoustic cues for stress perception. Hence the present study was aimed to determine the major acoustic correlate for stress perception in the Indian context. The investigation included 90 native Kannada (a Dravidian language) speaking typically developing (TD) children in the age range of 5–8 years. The study provides an insight towards possible acoustic cues and developmental trend for stress perception in children. The findings of the study can aid in identifying children at risk for and with communication disorders such as specific language impairment, hearing impairment, etc. and would complement the treatment strategies in achieving improved speech perception and production.

Keywords: acoustic cues, communication disorders, prosody, stress perception, typically developing (TD) children

Cite this Article

Sreedevi Narayani, Sangeetha Mahesh, Priyadharshini Veeramani. Acoustic Cue for Stress Perception in Kannada Speaking Children. Research and Reviews: Journal of Neuroscience. 2019; 9(3): 16–23p.