Developing the 3 Sentence Screening Test for Speech Sound Disorders and Prevalence in 6-Year-Old Children

배경 및 목적: 본 연구는 6세 아동의 말소리장애 출현율을 알아보는 ‘세 문장 따라말하기 선별검사’를 개발하고 600명의 아동에게 실시하여 조음 오류점수와 평정점수를 산출하였다. 방법: 우선 선별검사의 선별정확도를 검증하고 말소리장애 출현율을 구하였다. 결과: 중등도 이상의 말소리장애가 있는 아동은 2.3%, 경계선에서 경도 아동은 5.8%로 나타났다. 논의 및 결론: 논의에서 성별, 지역, 동반장애 등 다양한 특성에 따른 말소리장애 출현율 연구의 필요성을 제안하였다.

Objectives: There is no speech sound disorder (SSD) prevalence study in Korea. Adolescents with a history of SSD may experience a negative impact on their language and academic skills even though they no longer exhibit overt articulation errors, especially if their phonological errors have not been resolved by the age of 6. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of SSD in 6-year-old Korean children, and to investigate the accuracy of the 3 Sentence Screening Test. Methods: To assess speech development, the 3 Sentence Screening Test was administered to 600 children around the age of 6. The utterances were rated on a 4-point scale by clinicians, who then counted the number of errors in consonants/eojeols. Results: The accuracy of the screening test was best when cut-off score were more than two eojeol errors or more than three consonant errors. There was also a high correlation of .7 between the rating and the number of errors. The prevalence of SSD (rating 4, moderate to severe) in 6-year-old children was 2.3%; and at-risk for SSD (rating 3, borderline to mild) was 5.8%. Conclusion: The 3 Sentence Screening Test was shown to be a valid test tool for screening the speech development of 6-year-old children. This study provides a preliminary perspective on the prevalence of SSD in Korea.