Assessment of Spanish prosody in clinical populations

Abstract

We begin by reviewing ways of assessing prosody in Spanish-speaking individuals with disorders of different aetiologies. In Spanish, only one test has been specifically designed for prosody assessment in clinical populations: The Iberian Spanish version of the Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech-Communication (PEPS-C) test. Building on our previous work, we describe the test and summarize results found with typically developing Spanish and Englishspeaking individuals. The use of the Spanish PEPS-C test in clinical populations is exemplified with the case of Williams syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder. By discussing the relevance of the results found both in Williams syndrome and typical development we highlight developmental patterns and cross-linguistic differences that should be taken into account when assessing Spanish prosody in clinical settings.