This project will investigate the relationship between early infant feeding regime (breast/bottle/mixed feeding) and non-nutritive sucking behaviours (dummy/finger-sucking) with speech development at the ages of 2, 3 and 5 years. This will provide information on possible early risk factors for speech sound disorders, which will aid allied health professionals in the early identification and intervention of children requiring support.

The study comprises of 3 strands. The first will examine data from the ALSPAC dataset in three parts. Part A will look at the relationship between infant feeding and parental concern about speech development at age 18 months. Part B will look at the relationship between infant feeding regime and patterns of speech development at ages 25 and 61 months. Part C will look at the relationship between non-nutritive sucking behaviours and patterns of speech development at ages 25 and 61 months. The second strand will use data from the ALSPAC G2 dataset to investigate the relationship between infant feeding regime, non-nutritive sucking behaviours and speech development at the critical ages of 2, 3 and 4 years. The third strand will use data from Speech & Language Therapy clinical caseloads to look at children aged 2, 3 and 4 years with a diagnosis of speech sound disorder (SSD) and their early feeding history and non-nutritive sucking behaviours.