MCDI-K Referenced Expressive Word Development of Korean Children and Gender Differences

Pae, So Yeong; Song, You Kyung Chang; Kwak, Keum Joo; Sung, Hyun Ran; Sim, Hee Og

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2004;9(1): 45-56.

So Yeong Pae^` , You Kyung Chang Song^` , Keum Joo Kwak^` , Hyun Ran Sung^` , and Hee Og Sim^`

배소영(So Yeong Pae)| 장유경(You Kyung Chang Song)| 곽금주(Keum Joo Kwak)| 성현란(Hyun Ran Sung)| 심희옥(Hee Og Sim)

ABSTRACT

This study investigated Korean preschoolers’ expressive word development and the gender differences in the development of semantics. The Korean adaptation of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (MCDI-K) was used for the analysis. The mothers of 1,138 preschoolers from 5 different provinces in Korea provided the language data of their children. Mothers reported their children’s expressive words in the vocabulary checklist, MCDI-K(Pae, 2003) composed of 641 Korean words. The children were divided into monthly age groups, each group comprising 60 children, 30 girls and 30 boys. It was found that the vocabulary size increased as the children get older. It was also found that there are gender differences, which are statistically significant, between girls and boys in the monthly ages of 21, 22, 23, 25, 33, and 34. The implications of the results are discussed as to the usefulness of MCDI-K for the identification of expressive-language impairments for Korean children.