Objectives: The study investigated the prevalence of late-talkers at the age of 3 and followed up the language development and school performance of these children at the age of 7 in comparison with those without a history of speech delay. Methods: The participants were 1,342 children who were part of the Panel Study on Korean Children. The participants were divided into late talkers (LT) and typically developing children (TD) groups based on expressive vocabulary scores (Receptive & Expressive Vocabulary Test [REVT]) conducted at the age of three. REVT and school performance of the two groups were then re-measured and compared at age 7. MANCOVA analysis was conducted to analyze the difference between LT and TD children. Results: The results were as follows: the prevalence of late-talkers at the age of 3 was 16.6%; 31.4% of LT and 10.1% of TD children scored below the 10%tile in expressive vocabulary at the age of 7; and language development and language performance (reading, writing, speaking, listening) scores at the age of 7 in LT were significantly lower than TD. Conclusion: The study suggests that a delay in early expressive vocabulary development can be a cause for poor language development and school performance. Given this, language intervention should be considered early on for late-talkers to help overcome potential deficits in language development and school performance.
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