Researchers in Canada claim that giving your child a soother could slow their ability to talk.
A team from the British Columbia University made the finding after carrying out a breakthrough study – the first of its kind to establish a direct link between oral-motor movements and auditory speech perception.
For the study, which was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers put soothers in the mouths of six-month-old English-learning babies as they listened to speech sounds.
The team discovered that when a soother was restricting the movement of the tip of the tongue, the babies were unable to tell the difference between certain words and sounds. However, when their tongues were free to move, they could make the distinction.
Interestingly, the team found that children who suck their thumbs stand a greater risk of encountering these speech development issues, too.
Commenting on the significance of the research, co-author Prof Janet Werker said: “This study indicates the freedom to make small gestures with their tongue and other articulators when they listen to speech may be an important factor in babies’ perception of the sounds.”
