Two common problems that young children and infants face that speech pathologists deal with regularly are tongue thrust and thumb sucking. Tongue thrust is a common name used to describe orofacial muscular imbalance. The majority of infants swallow by pushing their tongue forward. This is easily recognizable when feeding an infant baby food, often times the baby’s tongue comes out of the mouth when swallowing their food. As the child matures, their swallowing pattern matures as well, learning to push their tongue against the roof of their mouth rather than forward.

The causes of tongue thrust are both hereditary and behavioral. In fact, one habit many children form that leads to tongue thrust is thumb sucking. This is usually recognized by dentists because they recognize irregular positioning of the teeth. Thumb sucking can actually cause permanent damage to the teeth and jaw line if continued by the child after the age of 4. If so, this usually results in the child having to get braces in order to correct the dental imperfection. Often times a speech pathologist is needed to conduct therapy sessions with the child in order to break him/her of the damaging habit.

Tongue thrust can also be recognized by noticing the inability to make certain sounds, especially with difficulty pronouncing their s’s and z’s. Although tongue thrust and thumb sucking can lead to more serious problems, they are both relatively easy to treat. Therapy from a speech pathologist often consists of exercises for the lips, tongue and jaw that are designed to change an incorrect or immature swallow into an adult pattern. As a result, it corrects the positioning of the teeth and articulation of speech sounds for the child. Tongue thrust and thumb sucking are both problematic for young children, but if noticed early, can be treated.