How to teach the TH Sound
Learning the TH Sound All By Itself
I love teaching the TH sound because it is one of the most visual sounds to teach. Model putting your tongue between your teeth while blowing air at the same time. Most children will have no difficulty imitating this action. Then practice this action with and with out voice. Think of it as a loud th and a quiet th. The reason for this is the TH is pronounced with voice in some words like, “that, this and the” and without voice in other words like, “thank you, theater and thongs.”
Practice the TH Sound in Syllables
Once you have had multiple successful productions of the TH sound all by itself try adding a long or short vowel to the TH sound. For example, “they, the, though, tha, thee, thy…” Then try putting the vowel in front of the the sound, for example, “ath, eth, eeth, ith, uth, oath…” Finally try putting the Th sound in the middle of vowels, for example, “atho, ethee, ootha, othu…” Which ever syllable combination your child is the most successful with will tell you whether you want to begin practice with words that begin with TH, end with Th or have Th occurring in the middle.
Practice the TH Sound in Words
If your child did did the best with TH following the vowel you would begin practicing words that end in TH like, “booth, bath, path, north, moth, mouth…” I prefer to practice with a list of at least 20 words. I like to use pictures to make it more fun. Fun ways to use the pictures include making a snake with the pictures with little treats every 3-4 cards, have the child say the name of the picture, if it is correct put it away, if he/she misses the word put it in a pile to practice later. When you have gone through all the words have your child say the ones they missed 5 times correctly before putting them away. You can also play games like memory, go fish, and bingo to keep it fun. You can download the pictures I have created for words beginning with TH as well as words that have TH in the middle and at the end of the word on the downloads page. Once your child is able to say these words with 80% accuracy or better, try putting them into a sentence.
Practice the TH Sound in Sentences
I use one sentence and have the child insert all their practice words into that sentence. For example the sentence might be, “They both have a ________.” In the blank you would fill in “They both have a bath, They both have a mouth, They both have a north.” Some sentences will make sense and others will not. You can use this as an opportunity to discuss how to make the sentence correct. If you are practicing the TH in the beginning of words you might use the sentence “That is the _______.” If you are practicing the TH in the middle of words you could use the sentence, “My brother wants a ________.” Feel free to make up your own sentences as well.
Praqctice the TH Sound in Stories
Following successful sentence productions have your child practice the TH sound while retelling simple stories or while reading aloud depending on the ability level of the child. Be sure to follow this outline until you have achieved mastery of the Th sound in all positions of words (beginning, middle and end of words).
Practice the TH Sound in Conversation
Once your child is able to retell stories with good TH production you will find moving the TH into conversation will go pretty smoothly. You may still have to remind your child from time to time but more often you will be pleased to watch them catch themselves and make the correction on their. Before you know it, you’ll forget they ever had a problem with TH. Good luck!
November 6th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Heidi-
I was glad to find this website, I am priting the exercises above on TH as that is one of the sounds my son struggles with. He is six years old and was a late talker. We were soncerned about his speech back when he was four, but then felt he had grown out fo the struggles. At his last teacher conference his teacher brought up concern that she couldn’t always understand him so now we arer ealizing he hasn’t gotten better but we have gotten better at understanding him. He struggles with TH and also with the L sound and mainly the R sound. Any exercises or suggestion for him? He also stutters if he gets excited and tries to talk too fast. I feel we have a lot to work on, any suggestions? Thanks so much!
Laurie
November 10th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Hi Laurie,
I just wrote a post on teaching the /l/ sound. I hope it will help you. For now I would probably ask your son’s speech therapist what you can do to help him with the /r/. He or she will be able to tell you which /r/ sound your son struggles with, which will allow them to give you more specific advice.
Good Luck,
Heidi
November 16th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Hello…
I am so excited to try your suggestions.
I have been trying to work with my oldest daughter who is 5 on the “TH” sound. Instead of saying a TH, she uses F or D if its at the begining but if it is in the middle of the word she sometimes just skips it all together. While she is concentrating she does better but once our exercises are over… she slips back. Is that normal..? Any other suggestions?
Thanks a bunch…
November 18th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Linda,
It’s perfectly normal that your daughter does well with the exercises but then still struggles when the exercises are over. Just keep practicing, and remember to follow the progression of practicing words, then sentences, then stories, and finally while reading aloud. This will make it a lot easier for her to move the sounds into conversation. Remember to be patient, it takes practice to change old habits!
Heidi
January 7th, 2008 at 9:22 am
I am pleased to find your suggestions for helping children use the “th” sound properly. My son is almost 10 and still uses an ‘f’ sound for “th” words, but oddly enough not for ’s’ or ‘z’ sounds. He pronounces words like “these” “although” and “this” correctly, but not “with” “three” or “thick” and other similar words. I have thought all along that he would eventually outgrow this, but I realize now that this may take some work. Can you offer me some encouragement that it’s not too late for my son to change his habits of speech? I’m also curious about why he would still be speaking this way when the rest of us in the family all speak clearly and correctly. Thanks for your thoughts.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Alison,
Giving your son a little training and a lot of encouragement should help him correct this speech error with out much trouble.
The reason he is saying words like “these,” “although,” and “this” correctly and not words like “with,” “three,” or “thick” is because they are actually produced differently. For example the TH sound in “these,” “although,” and “this” are produced in the same place as the TH sound in “with,” “three,” and “thick” but they use voice and the Th sounds in “with,” “three,” and “thick” do not use voice. It is a common error to substitute the “voicless” TH with the /f/ sound because the /f/ sound also does not use the voice.
Try following my recommendations on teaching the TH sound using the TH pictures from the downloads page. I am sure with a little practice your son should get it. If you have speech therapy available to you and doing it on your own is frustrating I am confident this is an error that shouldn’t take more than a few months to fix in therapy.
Best of luck,
Heidi
February 12th, 2008 at 5:04 am
Heidi,
Thank you so much for your helpful blog. My 3 year old daughter and I are working through the TH sound daily. My question is this: when she is attempting to say a word with TH in the middle or end, she’s trying to leave her tongue out for the whole word so that she will “catch” the TH at the right time. This makes her lisp her S, along with other silly things. Should I not worry about this?
February 19th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Stephanie,
It sounds like your 3 year old is doing just fine. The errors she’s making are pretty typical for her age. Continue to model correct productions of TH words and don’t worry so much about if she is completely accurate at imitating you right now. She is pretty young still and has a lot of time to work things out. The fact that she is trying is pretty great!
February 20th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Heidi, It was great to find your website, and some good ideas to try. My son is four years old, and always says “f” instead of “th”. I’ve encouraged him to stick out his tongue to make the “th” sound, which he can manage (reluctantly) when I ask him to. He’s never yet spontaneously made the “th” sound in conversation though. Is he too young to start with your step-wise suggestions? I just don’t want the “f” habit to become very ingrained.
March 4th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Sue,
I would definately try the exercises with your son. I have had a lot of success teaching the TH sound to young kids. On the other hand if it is really difficult for your son, or he is not interested just yet, give it a break and try again a few months down the road.
Heidi
October 27th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
would there be anything else for ‘thr’ …. like the word three
October 29th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
THANK YOU for the Boardmaker Sound picture cards!! I am a grad student, working in the speech clinic, & they saved me a whooole lot of time.
January 27th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Rosanne,
Practice -thr- words just like you practice the initial -th- words. If you are having difficulty with the word “three” break it up. First have your child say the -th- sound and then “ree”. Have them practice this sound 5 times in a row. Do this a couple of times a day and I promise you they will get it.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Heidi
May 13th, 2009 at 6:32 am
Heidi,
Your website was the answer to a prayer. I homeschool a 3rd grade child with capd, and take care of granny with alzheimers.
I have a 3 year old with speech issues and getting to speech therapy twice a week was not an option. We just needed some where to start. Thank you for what you do.
Lynda