Abstract

PIP: In an effort to examine retrospectively the influence of bottle feeding compared with breast feeding, a speech survey was carried out on 131 5- and 6-year-old European boys and girls from 2 schools in Putaruru, New Zealand, 1 state and the other parochial. Speech assessments were all made before information was gathered on the feeding regime in order to avoid any possibility of bias. Each child was interviewed alone for a period of 6-40 minutes. An assessment of his/her speech was made under the following headings: articulation; tonal quality; and fluency. Speech defects such as substitutions, omissions and intrusions, denasalization and positive nasalization were analyzed and recorded phonetically on each child's record form. Notes were also made regarding the effect of missing teeth or malocclusion, auditory perception, substandard speech, and tonal quality-phonatory defects. There was a distinct relationship between breast feeding and clarity of speech in the male. Breast feeding was associated with improved tonal quality in both male and female children with a more marked improvement in the case of the male. Improved speech was associated with improved reading ability. The feeding regime was found to have no effect on a child's confidence. The dramatic effect of breast feeding on the development of speech and reading in boys as revealed in this study suggests that the natural breast feeding method accelerates the rate of maturation of the male infant.