The mature or adult swallow pattern appears in some normal children as early as age 3 but is not present in the majority until about age 6 and is never achieved in 10% to 15% of a typical population.  Tongue thrust swallowing in older patients superficially resembles the infantile swallow and sometimes children or adults who place the tongue between the anterior teeth are spoken of as having a retained infantile swallow. This is clearly incorrect. Only brain damaged children retain a truly infantile swallow in which the posterior part of the tongue has little or no role .Because coordinated movements of the posterior tongue and elevation of the mandible tend to develop before protrusion of the tongue tip between the incisor teeth disappears, what is called “tongue thrusting” in young children is often a normal transitional stage in swallowing. During the transition from an infantile to a mature swallow, a child can be expected to pass through a stage in which the swallow is characterized by muscular activity to bring the lips together, separation of the posterior teeth, and forward protrusion of the tongue between the teeth. This is also a description of the classic tongue thrust swallow. A delay in the normal swallow transition can be expected when a child has a sucking habit.