/th/ sound mispronounced?

[sbgrace]

In working through phonics I realized my young six year old is say /d/ for /th/. His "this" sounds like "dis" for example. He's missing one front tooth and has another half way in but he's making no attempt to do /th/ so I don't think the tooth is the issue. Is this something anyone else has seen? Is it something I can work on at home or we need a speech therapist? His speech is understandable. He struggles with /l/ but that's age appropriate I believe. I've not noticed any other speech issues but then I didn't notice this issue until we got here in phonics.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

My 5 (almost 6) year old is just now starting to say "th" instead of "d". I think it is a normal speech development issue, like trouble with r and l.

[littlebug42]

My 8 year old and 6 year old do this as well. It is the only issue though. My 8 year old is finally getting better and can say the th sound but doesn't sometimes.

[KJsMom]

I agree that it is normal speech development. If you want to teach him to say the sound correctly my Spalding manual says, "Place extreme tip of tongue barely between teeth and release breath (unvoiced). Place extreme tip of tongue barely between teeth and release breath with voice (feel vibration)."

Hope that helps.

[Mrs Mungo]

I think it's normal speech development. I found that my kids re-learned to say a lot of words as they were learning to read.

[FunnyFarmMom]

That was always the last sound my kiddos picked up. My oldest went to speech at school :001_huh: for that and then taught the others. I just gently reminded them to stick their tongues out a little and they "got it" right away!

[sbgrace]

Well, I went through a list and he's also subbing /w/ for /l/. Is that ok at six too or concerning? I'm reminding him about the tongue for /th/ and he can do it when we're practicing but does it incorrectly again on his own.

[Guest nihal]

English is my first language, not my second and I don't know any other languages, but I avoid saying the TH sound at all costs because it sounds and feels painful when I say or hear the TH sound. It is annoying to my ears and so is the American accent. I also find that the TH sound is emphatised too much in the American accent more than any other accents I hear. So, I failover to making the H's silent by speaking like dis.

 

However, even dough speaking like dis may feel more comforting for me, speaking like dis also sounds wrong and lifeless, so I ended up having to force myself to put a little TH in my th words.

[swellmomma]

Pretty typical developmentally. All my kids went through it, `if that is the only concern than no slp is not needed imo. Just today I was working with dd5 on this same issue. I just repeat the word the right way, say look at my mouth before I repeat it and then she repeats back to me. She is capable of making the right sounds, but for many many sounds does not because her mind is going faster than her mouth. She has to concentrate to make the right sounds like /th/ instead of d but hates slowing down to think about it because her mind is 3 steps ahead into a new thought path kwim.

[srs]

If it helps, my 5.5yo does this as well, and an SLP friend said give it another year before being concerned. Our dentist did say that in her case it is a tongue placement thing and not because of the gap between her front teeth.

[chepyl]

I think it's normal speech development. I found that my kids re-learned to say a lot of words as they were learning to read.

 

 

My son had many cute baby words that went away with phonics study and reading. Torkatilla was one of many. I would not worry, th was one sound that took a lot of work.

[mhaddon]

My make the sound for f unless they are looking at me for a reminder...

[sbgrace]

It's really weird to see your own thread from over two years ago pop up! I was going to reply about my experiences and, whoa, it was me as the OP.

 

My 6 year old is now almost 9 and has received "drop in" speech therapy from the public schools once a week for the past two years. I did take him for an evaluation after I wrote this thread originally. The therapist said normal at six and to come back in 2nd grade. We were in the same place at 2nd grade. So in his case the speech issues were persistent though he's made great progress. I do like Super Star Speech if anyone reads this thread and wants to work on speech with a child without the help of a speech therapist. It's really as good or better than what we've received from therapy. The advantage of therapy for us has been the certainty that he's producing the correct sounds and help with "r" particularly which is tricky to teach.

[Rhonda in TX]

My DD replaced "th" with the "f" sound until she was in late elementary, and she has a "th" in her name. I did worry about it at the time, but I wouldn't worry at your child's age.

[PeacefulChaos]

IIRC, 'th' for males is expected around age 6-7 (depending on whether it's voiced or unvoiced). So I'd say it's pretty normal. :)