Infant feeding and phonologic development.
The relationship between breastfeeding and speech development was examined to determine what duration (if any) of breastfeeding is associated with better performance on a measure of phonologic development. Twenty-nine children aged 36-48 months and their parents were recruited from preschools to serve as subjects. The children's durations of exclusive breastfeeding ranged from 0 (always bottle fed) to 6 months. Phonologic development was assessed using an instrument known as the Percentage of Consonants Correct (PCC) [12]. Feeding histories were obtained by retrospective interviews with parents. Parents and teachers also made ratings of children's speech and total communication on a 5-point scale. This study fails to replicate earlier researchers' findings of an association between breastfeeding and phonologic development. No evidence was found of an association between any duration of either exclusive or partial breastfeeding and PCC scores. Pearson r correlations between parents' and teachers' ratings and PCC scores were weak. Results are discussed in comparison with previous reports of a correlation between breastfeeding and phonologic development.
Smith
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Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106-7050.
Gerber
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D001942:Breast Feeding; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D010699:Phonation; D013060:Speech