Cohort Study on Linguistic Stages of Delayed Speech and Language Children at Eighteen Months of Age and at Three Years of Age

Abstract

Out of 2399 eighteen month old and 2183 three year old children undergone medical examination, 1704 were examined twice. Cohort study on linguistic states was done using data of speech and language development of the 1704 children.Based on the results of the medical examinaiton at eighteen months old, 1418 had been diagnosed as having a normal speech and language development and, thereby, were classified as the normal group. The remaining 286 children were diagnosed as having a delayed speech and language development and, this was the delayed speech and language group. At age of three years, 1402 children (98.9%) in the normal group were capable of producing three-word sentences and 16 children (1.1%) uttering one or two-word sentences. In the delayed speech and language group, 237 children (82.8%) uttered threeword sentences, 40 children (14%) produced one or two-word sentences, and 9 children (3.2%) expressed no meaningful words.The delayed speech and language group and the normal group were compared on development of linguistic state. Following results were obtained: (1) The groups were compared in terms of speaking or not speaking three-word sentences. There were significantly more children capable of three-word sentences in the normal group than in the delayed speech and language group (p<.001). (2) The delayed speech and language group was divided into three subgroups: Group of the one or two-word sentences, the understanding meaning of word and the indifferent children. A significant difference in speech and language development was found between the normal group and one or twoword sentences group, and between the normal group and understanding meaning of word (p<.001). (3) There was a significant difference concerning the speech and language development between the normal group and group of the indifferent children (p=.0470) (p=0.384), (4) Children capable of three-word sentence speech were further divided into fluent speakers and influent speakers. Influent speakers children who, though capable of speaking, showed ambiguous word production, baby talk, or stuttering, were classified.The normal group significantly differed from the delayed speech and language group in terms of the frequencies of fluent and influent speakers (p<.001). (5) From the results of the individual follow-ups, it was revealed that there would be a need for medical examination after three years old and before entering into elementary school. There is also a need for recinsideration of personnel organizatization as a helping system for the delayed speech and language children.It was uncovered that, at age of three, there were more delayed speech and language children in the children who had been diagnosed at age of eighteen months as a delayed speech and language than in the children who had been diagnosed as a normal. The individual follow-ups of delayed speech and language children showed that those children often have problems in mental and neurological development other than language problems. These findings suggest that a medical examination is recomended to follow up delayed speech and language children before entrance into elementary school.