Preschool Prosodic Features

Patterns of Intonation in Toddlers

Overview

  • Intonation patterns in toddlers expand from simple falling to diverse patterns.

  • Mastery of these patterns supports pragmatic functions like questioning and answering.

Key Concepts

  1. Contrastive Stress

    • Vocal emphasis on specific syllables to distinguish meaning.

  2. Tone Unit

    • A segment of meaning created by prosodic contours.

Transition to Preschool Years

  • Introduction of contrastive stress:

    • Example: "Mommy sock" vs. "Mommy, sock!"

  • Elimination of pauses between successive utterances leads to the formation of tone units.

  • Tone units contribute to better syntax skills (e.g., sentence structure).

Developmental Milestones

  • Intonation patterns emerge before the first word stage.

  • Mastery of prosody typically occurs by age 12.

Language Expansion in Preschool

  • Rapid vocabulary growth and understanding of language structure.

  • Development of theory of mind skills for better listener consideration.

  • Impact of contrastive stress on language skills leads to humorous verbal expressions in children.