Past Events
Prosodic Differences between Cantonese-speaking Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder
2022.12.14 Dr. CHEN Si
Assistant Professor
Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Prosodic Differences between Cantonese-speakingProsodic Differences between Cantonese-speakingChildren with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder
Abnormal speech prosody has been widely reported in individuals with autism;Abnormal speech prosody has been widely reported in individuals with autism;impaired prosodic abnormalities can accompany such individuals throughout theirwhole lives (Lord et al., 2000). The abnormalities are strongly correlated with impairedsocial communication (Paul et al., 2005). Therefore, it is critical to promote ourunderstanding of abnormalities of speech prosody and to find training methods that canimprove the use of prosody. This study bridges this research gap by acousticallyevaluating the use of Cantonese speech prosody to mark information structure byCantonese-speaking children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Ourresults showed some focus-marking deficits, especially in the use of f0 range andduration by the Cantonese-speaking ASD children. We have also created robot-assistedtraining programs to help them improve in the use of speech prosody to mark focus.
