Prosodic Characteristics of Skilled Reading: Fluency and Expressiveness in 8- 10-year-old Readers

Statistical methods of describing prosody were used to study fluency, expressiveness and their relationship among 8-10-year-old readers. There were robust relationships between expressiveness and variables associated with pitch mobility; and between fluency and measures associated with temporal organization. Interactions indicated that the relationships were not simple. Differences between groups depended on sentence content and position. Some measures offer a basis for rules aimed at assigning individuals to skill categories. The effects suggest psychological hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms.