• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.175-181
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• 2015

This study aims to compare the differences between 'consonant inventory size' and 'phonological variability' in order to examine the phonological development and characteristics of the late-talkers and typically developing expressive language agematched children and to consider the correlations between them. The study participants included fifteen late-talkers and fifteen typically developing expressive language age-matched children(TED group). The results are as follows. First, as regards consonant inventory size, there was a significant difference between late-talkers and TED group. The late-talkers' consonant inventory size was less than TED group. Second, as regards phonological variability, there was a significant difference between late-talkers and TED group. The late-talkers' phonological variability was higher than TED group. Third, in the case of late-talkers, there was no significant correlation between consonant inventory size and phonological variability; however in the case of TED group, there was a significant negative correlation between consonant inventory size and phonological variability. Therefore, phonological ability should be considered in evaluation and intervention of late-talkers.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.13-21
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• 2014

Late talkers are young children who are delayed in their expressive language skills despite normal nonverbal cognitive ability, adequate hearing and typical personality development. The purpose of this study is to investigate the sentence interpretation strategies used by Korean-speaking late talkers and age-matched normal children. Nine late talkers and nine normal children matched by age at 30-35months were participated in this study. 27 simple noun-noun-verb(NNV) sentences were generated by factorial combination of case-marker [nominal case-marker on the first noun and accusative on the second (C1), accusative on the first noun and nominative on the second (C2), and no case markers on both nouns (C0)], and animacy of the nouns [animate-inanimate(AI), inanimate-animate(IA), animate-animate(AA)]. All the children were asked to "act out" their interpretation of the given sentence. For each type of sentences the percentage of choices of the first noun as the agent was calculated. The results of group (2) ${\times}$ animacy(3) ${\times}$ case-marker(3) mixed ANOVA showed a significant main effect for 'animacy', 'case marker' and 'group(2) ${\times}$ case-marker (3)'. The late talkers relied on semantic (animacy) cues in their interpretation of the sentences, while the normal peers utilized both animacy and grammatical morpheme (case-marker) cues. The results indicated that the late-talkers' comprehension skills were also delayed.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.115-122
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• 2017

This study attempts to determine the extent to which late talkers are at the risk of delayed phonological development, in order to identify groups at risk and to find factors affecting delayed phonological development. A group of 1,452 children (51% boys, 49% girls) were recruited from the nationwide Panel Study on Korean Children. The current study collected data from 418 children who were previously identified as late-talkers (LT) at their age of three on average (Time 1: expressive vocabulary test) and three years later (Time 2: phonological test). Their phonological outcomes of the Time 2 were analyzed and then compared to those of a group of 1,056 children with typical language development (NLT: no late-talkers) at the age of three in terms of the number of incorrect consonants, and the speech sound disorders rating scores. LT showed a lower articulation score than NLT, and boys showed a lower score than girls. These findings indicate that the late onset of speech and the gender of young children could be potential risk factors of speech sound disorders.