Mothers adapt their voice during children's adolescent development.

ABSTRACT: Mothers alter their speech in a stereotypical manner when addressing infants using high pitch, a wide pitch range, and distinct timbral features. Mothers reduce their vocal pitch after early childhood; however, it is not known whether mother's voice changes through adolescence as children become increasingly independent from their parents. Here we investigate the vocal acoustics of 50 mothers of older children (ages 7-16) to determine: (1) whether pitch changes associated with child-directed speech decrease with age; (2) whether other acoustical features associated with child-directed speech change with age; and, (3) the relative contribution of acoustical features in predicting child's age. Results reveal that mothers of older children used lower pitched voices than mothers of younger chi

SUBMITTER: Leipold S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8770681 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature