Affective Properties of Mothers' Speech (Kondaurova et al., 2015)

Purpose The affective properties of infant-directed speech influence the attention of infants with normal hearing to speech sounds. This study explored the affective quality of maternal speech to infants with hearing impairment (HI) during the 1st year after cochlear implantation as compared to speech to infants with normal hearing.Method Mothers of infants with HI and mothers of infants with normal hearing matched by age (NH-AM) or hearing experience (NH-EM) were recorded playing with their infants during 3 sessions over a 12-month period. Speech samples of 25 s were low-pass filtered, leaving intonation but not speech information intact. Sixty adults rated the stimuli along 5 scales: positive/negative affect and intention to express affection, to encourage attention, to comfort/soothe, and to direct behavior.

Results Low-pass filtered speech to HI and NH-EM groups was rated as more positive, affective, and comforting compared with the such speech to the NH-AM group. Speech to infants with HI and with NH-AM was rated as more directive than speech to the NH-EM group. Mothers decreased affective qualities in speech to all infants but increased directive qualities in speech to infants with NH-EM over time. Conclusions Mothers fine-tune communicative intent in speech to their infant's developmental stage. They adjust affective qualities to infants' hearing experience rather than to chronological age but adjust directive qualities of speech to the chronological age of their infants.

目的：婴儿导向性言语的情感属性会影响正常听力婴儿对语音声音的注意力。本研究旨在探讨在植入人工耳蜗后第一年内，对有听力障碍婴儿（HI）的母性言语的情感质量，与对正常听力婴儿（NH-AM）的言语进行比较。方法：将HI婴儿的母亲与年龄匹配（NH-AM）或听力经验匹配（NH-EM）的正常听力婴儿的母亲进行配对，记录她们在12个月期间分三次与婴儿玩耍时的言语样本。25秒的言语样本经过低通滤波，保留语调但未破坏语音信息。60位成年人对刺激物沿五个维度进行评分：积极/消极情感以及表达情感、鼓励注意、安慰/抚慰和引导行为的目的。结果：与NH-AM组的此类言语相比，对HI和NH-EM组的低通滤波言语的评分更为积极、情感丰富和安慰。与NH-EM组相比，HI婴儿和NH-AM婴儿的言语被评价为更具指导性。随着时间的推移，母亲在所有婴儿的言语中降低了情感质量，但在对NH-EM婴儿的言语中增加了指导性质量。结论：母亲根据婴儿的发展阶段精细调整言语的沟通意图。他们根据婴儿的听力经验而非生理年龄调整情感质量，但根据婴儿的生理年龄调整言语的指导性质量。