Early Phonation Ability from the Perspective of Infant Cries: A Case Study

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the acoustic patterns of crying sounds produced by a healthy one-month-old infant, with a special focus on various melody contours of fundamental frequency in a single cry and the coordination patterns between crying and respiration. Crying sounds were collected by the mother of the infant using a digital recorder in a natural home setting. The crying sounds collected were produced spontaneously by the infant without any elicited or invasive procedure. Acoustic analysis was conducted to examine crying characteristics on the dimension of frequency and regularity. Different kinds of melody contours were identified, including rising-falling, falling-rising, rising, falling, and fluctuated variations. Both regular and irregular coordination patterns between respiration and crying were found in the cries. The variations of crying pattern identified suggest that the ability to produce different crying sounds with various compositions of melody patterns had already developed for a one-month-old infant.