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The Effect of the Duration of Pacifier Usage on Speech Development

JSHS · 2024

Samantha McKenney, James Beam · Chesapeake Bay Governor’s School, Warsaw, VA

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Overview

Effective communication is crucial for navigating life, and speech -sound development plays a pivotal role in establishing communication skills. Communication disorders, affecting 5-10% of all children in the United States, encompass impairments in speech, language, and hearing. Speech pathology, a field focused on communication science and disorders, is instrumental in diagnosing and treating these disorders. Previous research has linked non -nutritive sucking habits, such as pacifier usage, to speech devel opment delays. Pacifier usage has been associated with altered tongue and teeth positioning, leading to malocclusion, and diminished auditory input, potentially affecting speech comprehension and pronunciation. This study explores the impact of the duration of pacifier usage on speech development in children ages six and seven. Speech screenings were conducted with first and second graders at elementary schools to assess the number of phonemes (speech sounds) they could accurately say. Parents were surveyed regarding pacifier usage history, and participants were assigned numbers for anonymity. The screenings involved presenting pictures targeting specific phonemes, with students pronouncing phonemes displayed on the page. The number of phoneme pronunciation errors were tallied for analysis. Results indicate that 85% of six -year- olds and 60% of seven -year-olds in the sample used pacifiers. The average number of phoneme errors increases with the duration of pacifier usage, with the highest average (9.3 errors) observed in children using pacifiers for over 36 months. A linear regression test resulted in a highly significant P-Value less than 0.01, suggesting a significant correlation between longer pacifier usage and increased phoneme errors.

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  • JSHS 2024 Category not listed

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Source: Junior Science and Humanities Symposium

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