• 비교문화연구
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• 제28권
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• pp.115-139
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• 2012

Interval or duration of segments, syllables, words and phrases is an important acoustic feature which influences the naturalness of speech. A number of cross-sectional studies regarding acoustic characteristics of children's speech development found that intervals of segments, syllables, words and phrases tend to change with the growing age. One hypothesis assumed that decreases in intervals would be greater when children were younger and smaller decreases in intervals when older (Thelen,1991), it has been supported by quite a number of researches on the basis of cross-sectional studies (Tingley & Allen,1975; Kent & Forner,1980; Chermak & Schneiderman, 1986), but the other hypothesis predicted that decreases in intervals would be smaller when children were younger and greater decreases in intervals when older (Smith, Kenney & Hussain, 1996). Researchers seem to come up with conflicting postulations and inconsistent results about the change trends concerning intervals of segments, syllables, words and phrases, leaving it as an issue unresolved. Most acoustic investigations of children's speech production have been conducted via cross-sectional designs, which involves studying several groups of children. So far, there are only a few longitudinal studies. This issue needs more longitudinal investigations; moreover, the acoustic measures of the intervals of child speech are hardly available. All former studies focus on word stages excluding the babbling stages especially the canonical babbling stage, but we need to find out when concrete changes of intervals begin to occur and what causes the changes. Therefore, we conducted an acoustic study of interval characteristics of segments and words concerning Canonical Babble ( CB) and early speech in an infant aged from 0;9 to 2;4 acquiring Mandarin Chinese. The current research addresses the following two questions: 1. Whether decreases in interval would be greater when children were younger and smaller when they were older or vice versa? 2. Whether the child speech concerning the acoustic features of interval drifts in the direction of the language they are exposed to? The female infant whose L1 was Southern Mandarin living in Changsha was audio- and video-taped at her home for about one hour almost on a weekly basis during her age range from 0;9 to 2;4 under natural observation by us investigators. The recordings were digitized. Parts of the digitized material were labeled. All the repetitions were excluded. The utterances were extracted from 44 sessions ranging from 30 minutes to one hour. The utterances were divided into segments as well as syllable-sized units. Age stages are 0;9-1;0,1;1-1;5, 1;6-2;0, 2;1-2;4. The subject was a monolingual normal child from parents with a good education. The infant was audio-and video-taped in her home almost every week. The data were digitized, segments and syllables from 44 sessions spanning the transition from babble to speech were transcribed in narrow IPA and coded for analysis. Babble was coded from age 0;9-1;0, and words were coded from 1;0 to 2;4, the data has been checked by two professionally trained persons who majored in phonetics. The present investigation is a longitudinal analysis of some temporal characteristics of the child speech during the age periods of 0;9-1;0, 1;1-1;5, 1;6-2;0, 2;1-2;4. The answer to Research Question 1 is that our results are in agreement with neither of the hypotheses. One hypothesis assumed that decreases in intervals would be greater when children were younger and smaller decreases in intervals when older (Thelen,1991); but the other hypothesis predicted that decreases in intervals would be smaller when children were younger and greater decreases in intervals when older (Smith, Kenney & Hussain, 1996). On the whole, there is a tendency of decrease in segmental and syllabic duration with the growing age, but the changes are not drastic and abrupt. For example, /a/ after /k/ in Table 1 has greater decrease during 1;1-1;5, while /a/ after /p/, /t/ and /w/ has greater decrease during 2;1-2;4. /ka/ has greater decrease during 1;1-1;5, while /ta/ and /na/ has greater decrease during 2;1-2;4.Across the age periods, interval change experiences lots of fluctuation all the time. The answer to Research Question 2 is yes. Babbling stage is a period in which the children's acoustic features of intervals of segments, syllables, words and phrases is shifted in the direction of the language to be learned, babbling and children's speech emergence is greatly influenced by ambient language. The phonetic changes in terms of duration would go on until as late as 10-12 years of age before reaching adult-like levels. Definitely, with the increase of exposure to ambient language, the variation would be less and less until they attain the adult-like competence. Via the analysis of the SPSS 15.0, the decrease of segmental and syllabic intervals across the four age periods proves to be of no significant difference (p>0.05). It means that the change of segmental and syllabic intervals is continuous. It reveals that the process of child speech development is gradual and cumulative.

• 아동학회지
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• 제29권5호
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• pp.1-12
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• 2008

This study investigated the development of complex sentences in the early utterances of Korean-Chinese children. The subjects were 47(20 2-year-old, 15 3-year-old, and 12 4-year-old) Korean-Chinese children living in China. Each child's spontaneous natural speech during interaction with his/her caregiver was videotaped for about 30 minutes and analyzed for Korean complex sentences using Kim's(2000) categories and Korean Computerized Language Analysis 2.0(2000). Results showed that older children were higher in Mean Length of Utterance and in number and frequency of word types than younger children. The language development of bilingual children was delayed compared with monolingual children but the developmental sequence between bilingual and monolingual children was similar.

• 재활복지공학회논문지
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.9-14
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• 2017

학령 전기 아동은 옹알이 단계부터 8세까지 모국어의 음운 체계를 습득하고 정상적으로 산출한다. 이 시기 청력손실은 외부 소리 자극을 수용하는데 어려움이 따른다. 청각적 수용의 문제는 언어 습득 및 발달을 지체시키고, 의사소통 장애를 일으킬 수 있다. 이외에도 학습, 사회성, 정서 발달 등에도 영향을 준다. 청력 손실은 조기 선별과 진단 및 중재가 중요하다. 그러나 그 정도가 낮거나 특정 음역에 국한된 경우 발견이 어려울 수 있고, 발견하더라도 재활 중재로 연결되기 어려운 경우가 많다. 이 연구는 학령 전기 아동에서 나타난 경도 및 중등고도 대칭성 고음급추형 감각신경성 난청의 사례를 청각학적 평가 결과 해석과 함께 의사소통 관련 문제를 분석하고, 청각 언어병리학적 재활 방향 등을 고찰하고자 한다.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제50권1호
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• pp.7-13
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• 2007

Hearing loss in newborns is the most frequently occurring birth defect. If hearing impaired children are not identified and managed early, it is difficult for many of them to acquire the fundamental language, social and cognitive skills that provide the foundation for later schooling and success in society. All newborns, both high and low risk, should be screened for hearing loss in the birth hospital prior discharge (Universal Newborn Heaing Screening, UNHS). Objective physiologic measures must be used to detect newborns and very young infants with hearing loss. Recent technological developments have produced screening methods and both evoked otoacoustic emission (EOAE) and auditory brainstem response (ABR) have been successfully implemented for UNHS. Audiologic evaluation should be carried out before 3 months of age and infants with confirmed hearing loss should receive intervention before 6 months of age. All infants who pass newborn hearing screening but who have risk indicators for other auditory disorders and/or speech and language delay receive ongoing audiologic surveillance and monitoring for communication development. Infants with sensorineural hearing loss are managed with hearing aids and receive auditory and speech-language rehabilitation therapies. Cochlear implants can be an outstanding option for certain children aged 12 months and older with severe to profound hearing loss who show limited benefit from conventional amplifications.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제45권1호
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• pp.1-9
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• 2024

Communication with others plays an important role in human social interaction and information exchange in modern society. However, some individuals have difficulty in communicating due to dysarthria. Therefore, it is necessary to develop effective diagnostic techniques for early treatment of the dysarthria. In the present study, we propose a mobile device-based methodology that enables to automatically classify dysarthria type. The light-weight CNN model was trained by using the open audio dataset of Korean patients with dysarthria. The trained CNN model can successfully classify dysarthria into related subtype disease with 78.8%~96.6% accuracy. In addition, the user-friendly mobile application was also developed based on the trained CNN model. Users can easily record their voices according to the selected inspection type (e.g. word, sentence, paragraph, and semi-free speech) and evaluate the recorded voice data through their mobile device and the developed mobile application. This proposed technique would be helpful for personal management of dysarthria and decision making in clinic.

• 음성과학
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.71-87
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• 2004

Korean has a pair of voiceless fricatives, whose laryngeal manifestation comes in parallel to stops and affricates with a three-way lexical contrast. Prior phonetic studies by Kagaya (1974), Iverson (1983), and Kang (1999, 2000) point out /s/ is associated with multiple characteristics of the larynx shared with not only the lax but also the aspirated series, whereas /s' / carries a laryngeal distinction typical of the tense consonants. The complex dual nature of /s/ is again supported by a psycholinguistic study by Kang (2004), as /s/ was found to interact with /$c^h$/ (17% of the time) as well as /c/ (57%) in speech errors. In addition, a recent work by Cho and Lee (2003) notes an interesting chain shift case in the acquisition of the fricatives. Although they observed a significant phonological pattern between child English and Korean, Cho and Lee's description of acquiring fricatives is far from being precise from the perspective of phonetics. From a longitudinal study of recorded tapes by two children at 1;7-3;8 and 1;7-2;1 respectively, I found that /s' / was usually substituted into tense noncontinuants in young children's early production as predicted, whereas /s/ having both lax and aspirated-like glottal properties revealed a complicated pattern of substitutions into lax, tense, and aspirated noncontinuants with a varying degree of preference relative to the subjects. The current acquisition study supports the previous claims concerning fricatives in other languages, showing that their acquisition comes after stops. Besides, it also notes that Korean fricatives are subject to a series of phonological processes called stopping, affricating, tensifying and palatalizing during the transitional period of phonological development by young children. Moreover, between the two voiceless types, /s/ was acquired earlier than /s'/ as the unmarked segment.

• 동의생리병리학회지
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.1025-1029
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• 2007

It is widely assumed that Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is determined by inherent disposition and environmental factor. IQ is estimated by age-conversion score and stabilized around age 4 and IQ of adult age can be predicted after age 10. Though children with Mental Retardation (MR) are delayed in language development since early infant period, they receive only special education including speech and language therapy, but no special medication. In traditional Korean medicine, the etiology and treatment for developmental delay of language have been handed down for a long time. Some studies on herbs and prescriptions for improving language development have been undertaken recently. We have found several cases of significant elevation of IQ in the children treated with long term medications of Korean herbal medicine for improvement of language. Analyzing these cases, especially performance IQ showed significant change. Therefore we suggest that Korean herbal medicine might improve cognition development in children with MR.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제64권10호
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• pp.497-503
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• 2021

Reading disability (dyslexia) refers to an unexpected difficulty with reading for an individual who has the intelligence to be a much better reader. Dyslexia is most commonly caused by a difficulty in phonological processing (the appreciation of the individual sounds of spoken language), which affects the ability of an individual to speak, read, and spell. In this paper, I describe reading disabilities by focusing on their underlying neurobiological mechanisms. Neurobiological studies using functional brain imaging have uncovered the reading pathways, brain regions involved in reading, and neurobiological abnormalities of dyslexia. The reading pathway is in the order of visual analysis, letter recognition, word recognition, meaning (semantics), phonological processing, and speech production. According to functional neuroimaging studies, the important areas of the brain related to reading include the inferior frontal cortex (Broca's area), the midtemporal lobe region, the inferior parieto-temporal area, and the left occipitotemporal region (visual word form area). Interventions for dyslexia can affect reading ability by causing changes in brain function and structure. An accurate diagnosis and timely specialized intervention are important in children with dyslexia. In cases in which national infant development screening tests have been conducted, as in Korea, if language developmental delay and early predictors of dyslexia are detected, careful observation of the progression to dyslexia and early intervention should be made.

• 아동학회지
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.125-138
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• 1992

The purpose of the present study was to examine the development of embedding through relative clause formation in the first language acquisition of Korean. Results are reported from the study of the spantaneous natural speech of 36 young Korean children ranging from 16 months to 45 months in age acquiring Korean as their first language in Chinju, Korea. The results revealed a developmental order in the first language acquisition of Korean relative clause structures. Namely, a free or headless relative clause appears to be acquired first, before lexically headed restrictive relative construction. This order is consistent with one evidenced in English (and also Chinese) first language acquisition, 'free' relatives appear to provide a developmentally early stage in the acquisition of restrictive relative clauses. The Korean data provided additional evidence for an intermediary stage with an overt complementizer as well as an overt lexical head. Implications for the results are disscused with regard to a continuous theory of universal grammar in the first language acquisition.

• 전자공학회논문지SC
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• 제46권2호
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• pp.15-21
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• 2009

난청은 가장 흔한 선천성 장애이다. 이 질병의 발생 빈도는 신생아 1000명 출생 당 $1{\sim}3$명 정도로 상당히 높다. 이러한 청력 장애가 조기에 발견된다면 수술적인 치료 등으로 예방할 수 있으나, 그렇지 못할 경우 언어와 학습장애를 초래하게 된다. 이런 관점을 근거로 신생아를 대상으로 한 선천성 난청의 선별검사는 큰 의미를 가지며 난청환자의 조기발견을 위한 노력이 필수적이라 할 수 있다. 기존의 수동 청력검사 시스템은 신생아 청력 평가 시 검사자의 주관성에 의존하게 되므로, 청성뇌간 반응의 뇌파 분석이 잘못될 가능성이 커진다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 난청여부를 자동으로 판독하여 결과를 나오도록 개발하고자 하였으며, 또한 기존 제품들과 차별화하기 위하여 휴대용으로 개발하여 차폐실이 아닌 일반 병실에서도 검사가 가능하도록 함에 따라 유소아의 청각 장애를 극복시키는데 기여하고자 하였다.