Background: Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech-Communication (PEPS-C) is a computerized test that assesses our ability in understanding and producing speech prosody forms and functions. It has been used with different clinical groups (e.g. autism spectrum disorders) and learners of English as a second language. The test is available in several varieties of English and some European languages. As PEPS-C is a comprehensive test of speech prosody and currently there is no prosody test for Cantonese (a Chinese dialect), we plan to develop one for Cantonese based on PEPS-C. This poster will present the first stage of test development, which is adopting four subtests of prosody functions (Turn-end, Affect, Boundary, and Contrastive stress); and explore the prosody developmental trend in children.
Methods: The test items of the English version of PEPS-C were went through and items that are appropriate for Cantonese were translated, whereas those that are not suitable were replaced. A new set of pictures and audio stimuli were made for both translated and new test items. Pilot testing will be carried out before data collection. A total of 100 typical speakers of Cantonese will be recruited: 10 boys and 10 girls in each of the following age groups – 6;0-8;11, 9;0-11;11, 12;0-14;11, and 15;0-17;11; and 10 men and 10 women of age over 18 years.
Results: Data collection is under way. Mean, standard deviation and range of scores of each subtest will be calculated for each age group. One-way ANOVA will be used to examine whether there is any difference in the scores between the five age groups for each subtest.
Conclusion: Based on previous findings reported for other languages, it is hypothesized that the scores will increase with age; specifically, younger children (probably those of 6;0-8;11 and 9;0-11;11) will show a significantly lower scores than the participants of the other age groups.