Research Article

The effectiveness of melodic intonation therapy on fundamental frequency and intensity in Persian autistic children’s speech

Abstract

Background and Aim: Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder with several speech disorders such as prosodic and pragmatic impairments. Melodic intonation therapy (MIT) based on Albert et al. model (1973) is a rehabilitation method, developed on prosodic features. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of MIT on Persian autistic children’s prosody.
Methods: An easy version of MIT, adopted for Persian language was designed by researchers. Then, after a successful pilot study on a 10-years-old boy for one month, 13 subjects were selected for the main study. All the subjects were autistic, male, right-handed, 7-10-years-old Persian children studied for 48 sessions (16 weeks). Background information gathered from the parents by a questionnaire. As pre- and post-test, some assessments about children’s fundamental frequency (Fº) and intensity of the Persian vowel sounds and declarative and interrogative sentences were accomplished. The data analysis was done using Praat and SPSS softwares.
Results: There was a statistically significant increase in acoustic features, such as intensity, and fundamental frequency of declarative and interrogative sentences; also all six vowels of Persian, excluding /â/ and /æ/ (p<0.05 for all).
Conclusion: The widely reported unusual prosody in autistic children was quantified by this study, too. In addition, there was convincing evidence of the positive effects of melodic intonation therapy on acoustic features in Persian autistic children.

1. Wan CY, Bazen L, Baars R, Zipse L , Norton A, Schlaug G. Auditory-motor mapping training (AMMT) as an intervention to facilitate speech output in non-verbal children with autism: a proof of concept study. PLoS One. 2011;6(9):1-7.
2. McCann J ,Peppe S ,Gibbon FE , O’Hare A , Rutherford M. Prosody and its relationship to language in school-aged children with high-functioning autism. Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2007;42(6):682-702.
3. Ladefoged P. A Course in Phonetics. 2nd ed. Boston: Thomson/Wadsworth; 1982.
4. Albert ML, Sparks RW, Helm NA. Melodic intonation therapy for aphasia. Arch Neurol. 1973;29(2):130-1.
5. Ferdosi N, Ashayeri H, Nilipur R. Melodic intonation therapy in Persian aphasia. J Language Brain. 2007;1(1)81-92.
6. Miller SB, Toca JM. Adapted melodic intonation therapy: a case study of an experimental language program for an autistic child. J Clin Psychiatry. 1979;40(4):201-13.
7. Cohen-Baron S. The autistic child’s theory of mind, a case of specific developmental delay. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1989;30(2):285-9.
8. Lee S, Potamianos A, Narayanan S. Acoustics of children’s speech: developmental changes of temporal and spectral parameters. J Acoust Soc of Am. 1999;105(3):1455-68.
9. Koishi HU, Tsuji DH, Imamura R, Sennes LU. Vocal intensity variation; a study of vocal folds vibration in humans with videokymography. Rev Bras Otorrinolaringol. 2003;69(4):464-70.
10. Shriberg LD1, Paul R, McSweeny JL, Klin AM, Cohen DJ, Volkmar FR. Speech and prosody characteristics of adolescents and adults with high-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2001;44(5):1097-115.
11. Sparks RW, Holland A. Melodic intonation therapy in Helm-Estabrooks. In: Albert ML, editor. Manual of aphasia therapy. Austin, TX: Pro-ED Publisher; 1991. p. 703-17.
12. Sparks RW, Helm N, Albert M. Aphasia rehabilitation resulting from melodic intonation therapy. Cortex. 1974;10(4):303-16.
IssueVol 23 No 2 (2014) QRcode
SectionResearch Article(s)
Keywords
Autism melodic intonation therapy prosody Persian vowels
Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
1.
Ferdosi N, Ashayeri H, Modarresi Y, Rovshan B. The effectiveness of melodic intonation therapy on fundamental frequency and intensity in Persian autistic children’s speech. Aud Vestib Res. 2017;23(2):74-82.