Imitation of words and nonsense syllables with similar suprasegmental patterns

The ability of three- and five-year old normal-hearing children to imitate suprasegmental patterns was measured by the Tennessee Test of Words and Nonsense Suprasegmental Patterns (T-TWANs-P). The T-TwANs-P consisted of twenty pre-recorded test items ranging from three to ten syllables. Ten items had words in sentences and 10 items had nonsense syllables with suprasegmental patterns that were similar to the sentences. Twenty children imitated (reproduced) the rhythm and intonation patterns they heard. The stimulus-response pairs were recorded and judged by two separate panels and the tester. One panel judged each response as correct-incorrect, and the other panel judged the responses on a 5-point similarity scale. The 5-year olds did significantly better than the 3-year olds. The word subtest was easier than the nonsense syllable subtest for both groups. Fiveyear olds did noticeably better than 3-year olds on the word subtest. The difficulty of the test items increased as the number of syllables increased (e.g., 3 versus 10 syllables). Females seemed to do better than males.