Articles

The Relationship between Vocabulary and Phonological Processing according to the Speech Sound Acquisition of 3-Year-Old Children

AUTHOR
Yun-Joo Kim, HyunJu Park
INFORMATION
2025, Vol. 10, Issue 2 / pp. 97-106
e-ISSN
2508-5948
p-ISSN

ABSTRACT

Purpose : This study examined the relationship between vocabulary and phonological processing skills across levels of speech sound acquisition and investigated whether speech sound acquisition influences these skills.Methods : Thirty-six typically developing 3-year-old children were divided into three groups (n = 12 each) based on their level of speech sound acquisition: Group A (complete acquisition), Group B (mispronunciations of fricatives only), and Group C (mispronunciations of fricatives and other sounds). Vocabulary skills were assessed using receptive and expressive vocabulary tests; phonological processing skills were evaluated with nonword and sentence repetition tasks. Group differences were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and variable influence was evaluated using logistic regression.Results : Both vocabulary and phonological processing differed significantly across groups, with Groups A and B outperforming Group C in all tasks. Receptive and expressive vocabulary scores, and nonword and sentence repetition scores, were significantly correlated. Higher scores in both domains increased the likelihood of belonging to Groups A or B rather than Group C.Conclusions : Vocabulary and phonological processing are strongly associated in typically developing 3-year-olds and early phonological development influences these skills. These results have implications for early language assessments and intervention strategies.

Keyword
speech sound acquisition vocabulary phonological processing skills early childhood language development

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