Talking to children: the effects of rate, intonation, and length on children's sentence imitation

Twelve nursery school children (mean age = 3; 9) attempted to imitate sentences which varied systematically in rate of presentation, intonation and length. The children more successfully imitated shorter sentences than longer ones, and sentences spoken at a rate nearer their own than sentences spoken at slower or faster rates. The imitation of long sentences read with normal intonation was superior to the imitation of long sentences read with flat intonation. Since adults frequently address children in short sentences, spoken slowly and with exaggerated intonation, these results indicate that these speech modifications may enhance the children's language comprehension.