Mental health articles

Significance of oral experience for development
Developmentally, hand-to-mouth activity gives the infant strategies for selfsoothing
and practising self-regulation, and opportunities for the tactile
exploration of objects by mouthing them (Field, 1999). Dowling (1977) studied
the development of a small group of infants with oesophageal atresia (OA)—a
condition, apparent at birth, in which the oesophagus is incomplete, and there is
no connection between the mouth and stomach. This precludes oral feeding until
the condition is corrected surgically. In reviewing the outcomes for the infants
who had been deprived of varying amounts of normal oral experience, Dowling
(1980) suggests that the experience of purposefully taking in, or rejecting food
orally has an organising influence on behaviour. It provides motivation for gross
motor activity and for engaging with the world, and this in turn enhances global
developmental progress.