Non-nutritive suck and voice onset time: Examining infant oromotor coordination

The variability of a child’s voice onset time (VOT) decreases during development as they learn to coordinate upper vocal tract and laryngeal articulatory gestures. Yet, little is known about the relationship between VOT and other early motor tasks. The aims of this study were to evaluate the relationship between infant vocalization and another early oromotor task, non-nutritive suck (NNS). Twenty-five full-term infants (11 male, 14 female) completed this study. NNS was measured with a customized pacifier at 3 months to evaluate this early reflex. Measures of mean VOT and variability of VOT (measured via coefficient of variation) were collected from 12-month-old infants using a Language Environmental Analysis device. Variability of VOTs at 12 months was significantly related to NNS measures at 3-months. Increased VOT variability was primarily driven by increased NNS intraburst frequency and increased NNS burst duration. There were no relationships between average VOT or range of VOT and NNS measures. Findings from this pilot study indicate a relationship between NNS measures of intraburst frequency and burst duration and VOT variability. Infants with increased NNS intraburst frequency and NNS burst duration had increased VOT variability, suggesting a relationship between the development of VOT and NNS in the first year of life. Future work is needed to continue to examine the relationship between these early oromotor actions and to evaluate how this may impact later speech development.