초록/요약

Purpose: This study aimed to find the difference between expressive vocabulary delayed children and late bloomers and identify the factors that predict their expressive vocabulary and pragmatic language. Methods: Two-hundred-and-thirty-six three-year-old late talkers whose expressive vocabulary score was lower than the tenth percentile were selected from the fourth data of Panel Study on Korean Children (PSKC) and were divided into two groups based on whether their expressive vocabulary scores were greater than the tenth percentile at age seven (the 8th data of PSKC). Pragmatic language at age nine (the tenth data of PSKC) was selected for the study. As child internal/external factors, we used child receptive and expressive vocabulary scores, child self-esteem, child executive function (EF), child school adjustment, child-parent interaction and parenting behaviour (warmth/control) from the eigth data of PSKC, parenting efficacy from the seventh data of PSKC, and pro-social behaviour from the tenth data of PSKC. Results: Among the late talkers, 81 still had expressive vocabulary delay (ED) and 155 had recovered (ND). First, ND showed significantly higher in all child internal factors than children with ED while there was no significant difference in parent-child interaction and parent factors between two groups. Second, EF explains around 44% of the later talker’ later expressive vocabulary whereas it was mother-child interaction that explained the late talkers’ later pragmatic skills the most (16.1%). Conclusions: This study suggests that a multi-dimensional approach to the language development of late talkers is required to better understand the recover-ability from the language delay and to practice more efficient intervention, insomuch as affective, cognitive, environmental (parent-child interaction) factors contribute to their language skills.