From Bites to Babble: How Feeding Builds Speech

When we think about a child learning to speak, we often imagine them saying their first words or babbling with excitement. But what if we told you that some of the earliest building blocks for speech development actually begin at the dinner table?

Feeding and speech may seem like two separate skills—but they’re more connected than you might think. The muscles and movements used for eating and drinking lay the foundation for clear speech, strong sounds, and confident communication.

What Are Oral Motor Skills?

Oral motor skills refer to the movements and coordination of the lips, tongue, cheeks, and jaw. These are the same parts of the mouth that help your child chew, bite, lick, suck, and swallow—skills they use daily while eating.

These same muscles also help your child:

• Move their tongue to make specific sounds like /l/ and /r/

• Use their lips for sounds like /p/ and /b/

• Control their jaw to support clear articulation

When oral motor skills are weak or uncoordinated, it can affect both feeding and speaking.

💡Did you know a child typically says their first words around the same time they start chewing solid food?

Signs Your Child May Be Struggling with Oral Motor Skills

You might notice challenges in feeding first, such as:

• Difficulty chewing or swallowing

• Pocketing food in the cheeks

• Drooling beyond infancy

• Picky eating due to texture sensitivities

• Gagging or choking on food regularly

These same children might also:

• Struggle with making certain speech sounds

• Be difficult to understand even when trying to talk (mumble)

• Get frustrated when communicating

💡Did you know mumbling could be due to not moving the jaw, lips or tongue precisely when speaking?

Why the Connection Matters

Feeding tasks are often some of the first ways children develop oral strength, coordination, and endurance. Think of feeding as a daily “workout” for the mouth. When a child can’t eat or drink efficiently, they may miss out on that muscle practice that supports clear, strong speech.

Even babies who have trouble with bottle or breast feeding may later show delays in babbling or first words because their oral muscles aren’t working efficiently.

How Therapy Can Help

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) trained in feeding and oral motor development can support both areas together. Therapy might include:

• Exercises to improve jaw stability, jaw grading and tongue movement

• Safe practice with new food textures

• Strengthening lips and cheeks for better control

• Support for transitioning from bottles or purees to solids

When feeding improves, so often does speech clarity!

It’s All Connected

Every bite your child takes is helping them build the foundation for their words. Oral motor development supports not only mealtimes but mealtime conversations, too. If you're noticing concerns in feeding or speech—or both—it’s never too early to talk to a speech therapist. With the right support, your child can grow in both confidence and communication.

Call us today at (513)201-8992 to set up an evaluation in our Mason office to assess oral motor skills for feeding and speech! During our initial evaluation we will assess oral motor skills while eating a variety of foods (ex. Spoon feeding, chewy, crunchy, straw drinking, cup drinking). After our initial evaluation we will create a therapy program and home program to address weak muscles and help increase both feeding and speech skills to be both better eaters and speakers! Out holistic approach to therapy allows us to address feeding, speech clarity and social and language skills all in a single session and empowers you to help encourage those skills daily in between sessions for fast progress toward our goals!