Developmental Trends in Vocal Fundamental Frequency of Young Children

Fundamental frequency (F₀) values are reported for 14 children between the ages of 11 and 25 months, an age period characterized by changes in physiological and linguistic development. Subjects were grouped into 3-month age intervals reflecting a continuum of physical development and were audiotape-recorded during spontaneous speech productions. Acoustic analysis of average F₀ and F₀ variability was performed. F₀ variability was found to decrease as subject age increased, as did segment durations. The decrease in average F₀ across the arbitrary age groups did not reach significance; however, when viewed within the overall developmental period and in comparison with data from other studies of younger and older children, average F₀ during this age is consistent with a decreasing trend throughout early childhood.