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Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders pp 1–5Cite as

Prosody

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Definition

Prosody refers to the rhythm and melody of the voice, including intonation, stress, and pauses. Prosody can provide cues to lexical meaning, (e.g., CONtract vs. conTRACT), grammatical structure, emphasis (e.g., I want THIS cookie), affect, and structure in discourse (e.g., asking a question or making a statement), among other functions.

Historical Background

In their initial descriptions of the disorder, both Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger noted the presence of differences in tone of voice used by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Asperger noted that the children with this disorder could sound too soft and far away, shrill, and have intonation with a singsong quality or that did not go down appropriately at the end of a declarative statement. Descriptions of prosody have ranged from flat or monotonous to variable, pedantic, and/or having a singsong quality. Because of this variability in symptom presentation across the autism spectrum, it has been historically...

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References and Reading

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neurocognition, Dept. of Brain Health, Nestlé Institute for Health Sciences, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Lisa Edelson-Fries

  2. Autism Services, LOGAN Community Resources, Inc., South Bend, IN, USA

    Joshua J. Diehl

Authors
  1. Lisa Edelson-Fries
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  2. Joshua J. Diehl
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lisa Edelson-Fries .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT, USA

    Fred R. Volkmar

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Edelson-Fries, L., Diehl, J.J. (2018). Prosody. In: Volkmar, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_366-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_366-3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6435-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6435-8

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