title: Sounds of melody--pitch patterns of speech in autism.
abstract: The objective of this study was to find a pattern in vocalizations of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We compared the intonational features of 15 children with ASD who showed speech, aged 4-10 years, with 10 age-matched typically developing controls. Exaggerated pitch, pitch range, pitch excursion and pitch contours were observed in speech of children with autism, but absent in age-matched controls. These exaggerated features, which are distinctive characteristics of motherese, were also seen in interactions of an independent group of 8 mothers of typical infants using child-directed speech. Our findings provide the first evidence of a distinct pattern in vocal output from children with autism. They also demonstrate that speech patterns might follow a delayed developmental trajectory in these children.
authors.affiliation: National Brain Research Centre, NH-8, Nainwal Mode, Manesar 122 050, India.
authors.forename: Megha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sharda
authors.forename: T Padma
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Subhadra
authors.forename: Sanchita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sahay
authors.forename: Chetan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nagaraja
authors.forename: Latika
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Ramesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mishra
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sen
authors.forename: Nidhi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Singhal
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Erickson
authors.forename: Nandini C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Singh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D014705:Verbal Behavior