Factors Supporting the Child’s Prosodic Development

Speech prosody is an important factor stimulating the development of the child’s speech. The ability to perceive and interpret prosodic phenomena is the first stage in the acquisition of phonological competence by the child. It first of all enables segmentation by the child of the speech sequence, owing to which it is possible to distinguish linguistic units in it. The degree of prosodic competence acquisition in the early stages of speech ontogeny influences the pace of speech development, while in school-age children it is associated with the level of fluent reading with comprehension. The present paper discusses the problems related to the acquisition of prosodic competence and skills in speech ontogeny. It presents biological and social determinants of prosody development and describes in greater detail the environmental factors that develop the child’s prosodic competence and skills. It also discusses the stages of prosodic development, taking into account the dominant functions of speech prosody in them.