Receptive prosody in adolescents and adults with Williams syndrome (original) (raw)

Receptive prosody in adolescents and adults with

2016

People with Williams syndrome (WS) are known to use prosodic devices extensively in conversation and narratives, but their ability to interpret prosody to comprehend speakers' communicative intentions and emotional states has not been investigated systematically. We present findings from three experiments probing sensitivity to lexical stress and to affective prosodic cues

Investigating prosodic ability in Williams syndrome

Clinical linguistics & phonetics

This paper investigates whether people with Williams syndrome (WS) have prosodic impairments affecting their expression and comprehension of four main uses of intonation. Two adolescent males with WS were assessed using the PEPS-C battery, which considers prosodic abilities within a psycholinguistic framework, assessing prosodic form and function in both the input and output domains. The performances of the subjects with WS were compared with control data for age and language-comprehension matched children. The results revealed significant prosodic impairment affecting all areas of the profile. Crucially, however, different profiles of strengths and weaknesses were revealed for the two subjects. The results support the growing view that WS is a heterogeneous population in terms of linguistic abilities.

Abnormal processing of emotional prosody in Williams syndrome: An event-related potentials study

Research in Developmental Disabilities, 2011

Williams syndrome (WS), a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder due to a microdeletion in chromosome 7, is described as displaying an intriguing socio-cognitive phenotype. Deficits in prosody production and comprehension have been consistently reported in behavioral studies. It remains, however, to be clarified the neurobiological processes underlying prosody processing in WS.

Expressive language style among adolescents and adults with Williams syndrome

Applied Psycholinguistics, 2008

Language samples elicited through a picture description task were recorded from 38 adolescents and adults with Williams syndrome (WS) and one control group matched on age, and another matched on age, IQ, and vocabulary knowledge. The samples were coded for use of various types of inferences, dramatic devices, and verbal fillers; acoustic analyses of prosodic features were carried out, and an independent group of judges provided global ratings of the overall expressiveness of the language. In addition, a standardized measure of social adaptive functioning was administered to the parents of the participants with WS. The findings revealed distinctive developmental trends in the use of expressive content and prosodic patterns by adolescents and adults with WS that were not evident among the controls. Ratings of expressiveness by naive judges of the speech samples produced by the participants with WS were related to parent evaluations of adaptive social communication skills; however, the verbal productions of this group were not judged to be significantly more expressive than those of controls.

Intonation abilities of children with Williams syndrome: A preliminary investigation

Journal of Speech, Language and …, 2007

Purpose: The authors investigated expressive and receptive intonation abilities in children with Williams syndrome (WS) and the relation of these abilities to other linguistic abilities. Method: Fourteen children with WS, 14 typically developing children matched to the WS group for receptive language (LA), and 15 typically developing children matched to the WS group for chronological age (CA) were compared on a range of receptive and expressive intonation tasks from the Profiling Elements of Prosodic Systems-Child version (PEPS-C) battery. Results: The WS group performed similarly to the LA group on all intonation tasks apart from the long-item imitation task, on which the WS group scored significantly lower than the LA group. When compared with the CA group, the WS group was significantly poorer on all aspects of intonation. Whereas there were a number of significant correlations between the intonation and language measures in the control groups, in the WS group, there was only 1 significant correlation between a PEPS-C task and one of the language measures. Conclusion: As a result of this study, the authors concluded that children with WS have expressive and receptive intonation abilities as expected for their level of language comprehension and that intonation and other linguistic abilities in WS are not strongly related.

Speech Prosody in Down's and Williams Syndrome: A Comparison

Expressive and receptive speech prosody in a group of children with Williams syndrome and Down's syndrome are compared with each other and also with typically developing children using a computerized test battery. It is found that the WS children outperform the DS children on all expressive aspects of prosody, despite having comparable receptive language and non-verbal skills. This suggests that differences in prosodic ability may be linked to genetic disorder.

Psycholinguistic abilities of children with Williams syndrome

Research in Developmental Disabilities, 2012

This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues.

Late phonological development in Williams syndrome

Frontiers in Psychology

Williams syndrome is a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder characterized by a unique phenotype, including mild to moderate intellectual disability and an uneven neuropsychological profile of relative strengths and weaknesses. Language structure components (i.e., phonology, morphosyntax, and vocabulary) have been considered an area of specific ability compared to pragmatic language use. However, research on phonological development in Williams syndrome is very scarce, and it suggests atypical patterns. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to explore the profiles of late phonological development in Spanish-speaking children, adolescents, and adults with Williams syndrome, based on the analysis of five classes of processes (Syllable Structure, Substitution, Omission, Assimilation, and Addition) in spontaneous speech. The phonological profiles of seven children (aged 3–8 years), and seven adolescents and young adults (aged 14–25 years) with Williams syndrome were compared with tw...