My research examines the cross section of sucking, feeding and speech emergence across environmental, maternal, physiological and genetic factors and across patient populations. I seek to determine how factors influence sucking, feeding and speech emergence with the goal of providing targeted assessments earlier for infants who experience sucking and feeding delays. Our research has established the first standardization of NNS at specific time points in the first year of life and how characteristics of NNS change across the sample.
We have shown that aspects of NNS relate to neurodevelopmental outcomes and vary across clinical populations of infants. In both research and clinical settings, very few assessment tools exist for quantifying infant NNS. Our protocol bridges this gap by providing a quantitative, physiologically-based system to assess infant NNS that is transportable and can be utilized in a variety of clinic and research-based settings.
Data in our lab shows that infant non-nutritive suck is a sensitive indicator of exposures in utero and is linked with subsequent neurodevelopmental outcomes. Ultimately, my goal is to attain enough data to change public policy and allow for a non-nutritive suck screen for all infants soon after birth, much like a newborn hearing screen. Results have consistently demonstrated that quantitative NNS measurement is a sensitive biomarker of neurodevelopment.
This has led to more specific research questions regarding how NNS relates with subsequent communication and neuromotor outcomes and attempts to uncover the underlying mechanisms that link these domains. Future research with the NNS device will focus on describing NNS performance in clinical populations. If we can distinguish typical versus atypical NNS behavior with the device, this would significantly help its clinical utility by identifying children at potential risk for future issues with feeding or oral motor development.
