The Th Sound....

No advice but I wanted to tell you that my daughter LOVED that book. She is now going into 5th grade but she has always read 2 grade levels above her actual grade. (We started the book when she was 4 yo though)

My husband's cousin is a speech & language pathologist, and just a few weeks ago when she was over I was expressing my concern about this same thing. My son is 4, and she said not to even worry about it at all right now. Just keep modeling appropriate pronunciation and the majority of the time the kids' tongues/brains will sort it out for themselves.

My daughter is in speech therapy and her speech teacher has said that the "th" sound is a later sound. I am amazed at how many sounds kids can't make correctly until age 6 or 7. One thing the teacher has taught us is to break up the word using your hands. For example, for THINK you would say "th" on one hand on then "ink" on the other hand. (I hope that makes sense) It helps them to break up the beginning and the ending of the words. This has really helped my daughter with learning how to say many words. It will not work with all words especially the word THE because you can't really break that up to where it sounds right. Be patient with him and he will get the hang of it, but I know my almost 6 year old still has to beak out the "th" sound to say it correctly most of the time.

My SIL is a Speech Pathologist and my 4 year old is in speech, so I would have to say that the 'th' sound a sound most kids master by the time they are 6 or 7. My SIL said she doesn't even work with kids on that sound until they are in 1st or 2nd grade.

My oldest was pulled out to work on that sound, and his teacher had him practice blowing air through his teeth.

Personally I would not worry about it at all. Ask your pediatrician, but there are several sounds that are common for preschoolers to mispronounce. If you are concerned, have him evaluated by a speech pathologist. But I did that for my daughter when she was 4 and the speech pathologist told me everything she was mispronouncing (which wasn't a lot) was totally age appropriate. For my son, he was mispronouncing certain sounds when he started kindergarten and no one (educators) were concerned and he eventually grew out of it (and is now a super reader BTW!).

One of my littles had several different pronunciation problems as a preschooler. It was very hard to understand her (and she was so frustrated by that!). I spoke with a friend of mine, who is a speech therapist for young children, and she told me not to worry until my little one was in kindergarten. She said 95% of issues work themselves out by then. Sure enough, my little one figured it all out by then.

One thing we did do to try and help her that my friend recommended was to have her sit on the bathroom counter facing the mirror. I'd stand just behind her (so my face was right above hers in the mirror). I'd say words she had trouble with. For instance, she couldn't say "ch." So I'd say CHeese or CHips or CHild. That way she could see the shape my mouth made as I said the sounds. Then she would try. I'd praise her just for trying. (For the record, "ch" was the last sound she could correctly pronounce. The "sp" and "r" and "th" were a bit easier.)

Interesting to me that some are saying to work on this later, or not at all. When my daughter was in preschool, her preschool had a speech therapist who visited weekly and did lots of activities with the kids, and she nailed the fact (which we and the classroom teacher had already noticed) that our daughter used V for TH (muvver for mother, favver for father and so on). We too weren't sure whether it was a big deal or not.

She said that this particular problem is not one that necessarily resolves itself without any intervention; many kids do get over it but some do not (more on that below). She was very careful to say that she was not seeking business and would be glad to give us a list of therapists. We did use her, for once-a-week sessions for about three months, and it took care of the problem. What's more, my daughter, then about your son's age, simply loved these sessions! She couldn't wait to go to see the therapist to play and have fun. And her speech truly did improve. This was her one and only speech issue so the sessions were focused solely on TH.

Since then, I have noticed that a few of my daughter's friends whom I am with frequently have this issue --at age 12 -- and still use a V for the TH sound. In an older child it is quite noticeable as incorrect speech -- more so than with a young child. I would consider getting your child some short-term speech therapy focused just on this one issue and you might be amazed to see how it can get corrected in a fairly short time, especially if you work on it at home a little, in a fun way, as directed by a speech therapist who specializes in working with young children. It's worth the money (which wasn't much, really) to get it worked on earlier, not later, and to deal with it before elementary school begins.

It will come. These are sounds that are mastered in kinder. Some kids do not get them fully until end of 1st (my son is one of them), however "th" is "f" when he says it.

I am going to say to be careful you are not pushing your 3yr old too hard just yet, learning is best done by play at this age. It was suggested to me to show kids print everywhere they were to encourage the need to read vs. trying to get them to read books.

For the parent who's child had speech therapy because of this one issue, I assume you paid privately because no school or funded speech therapist would work with a child if this was their only issue. If it was thru the school or covered by insurance there were other issues involved.

If that is the only real problem with his speech, I wouldn't worry about it at all. My son is 6 and only in the last six months or so is he really saying it correctly. It was usually more of a d sound for a harder "th" like in "the" and I think an "f" sound on a softer "th" like in "think." He knew it was wrong and would sometimes try very hard to say it right, but his mouth just wouldn't form the sound.

I do not think your son needs speech therapy if the rest of his speech is clear.

My son used to have the same problem. He received speech therapy in kindergarten, and I think in first grade. I'm assuming you mean the "th" as in that and father, not think and thirsty. Teach him to stick his tongue out. That "v" sound is made by the front top teeth making contact with the inner lower lip. I always tell my first graders in school to stick their tongue out when saying "this" and "that" and all of those other words. If you are very concerned, perhaps your insurance covers visiting a speech therapist?

He will very likely grow out of it. My daughter would say boot instead of booth or toot instead of tooth. Her kindergarten teacher said not to worry and by the end of the year, she was speaking correctly. If he has no other speech issues, you should be fine.

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He will very likely grow out of it. My daughter would say boot instead of booth or toot instead of tooth. Her kindergarten teacher said not to worry and by the end of the year, she was speaking correctly. If he has no other speech issues, you should be fine.

My supreme talker/reader is 5 1/2 and still just getting his "th" sound instead of "F" for soft "th" and "Z" for "The". And it's hard for him. I never made an issue of it because I didn't want him to get self conscious, so he's not!!! Now that he's getting it, he GOES for it. He'll say, "Hey, mom TTTHHHHanks!" with spit flying and all.

It's up to you how much to push it. It will happen naturally eventually, but a speech therapist or video tips (youtube?) may help if you want to accelerate.

He may need speech therapy once he gets into Kindergarten, or even preschool if it's offered through your school district. I don't know any tricks myself, otherwise my son wouldn't be in speech therapy :)

I always overemphasised the TH sound when speaking with my kids as toddlers learning to speak. The best part is to make sure they hear the correct sound repeatedly. Speach and hearing go hand in hand. True, kids will more than likely work it out by Kindergarten, but don't wait and do nothing. When he says the V sound vs. the TH sound, repeat the word correctly sticking your tongue between your teeth so he can see that his tongue has to touch his teeth to make the TH sound for that word. A one time repeat for each time he says V vs. TH is sufficient. Over the course of a day, he will see your correction at least 20 times (probably more) and over the course of a month he should improve. The same applies to other sounds he is mixing up. Repetition is the key. This is also a good way to build his vocabulary by exposing him to more TH words. Good luck!

Use a mirror. And you show him the formation of your mouth AND tongue, and the sound is emitted.
Then looking at himself in the mirror, he can see how his mouth/tongue is formed and what it looks like etc.

Oh sorry, you said you did use a mirror.

My son did the same. I always corrected him. What really helped was when we wrote down a list together of words that have that sound. We put it on the fridge at his eye level and would go over it. Often he would think of a new word and we would add it to the list. It didn't take long after that.

My son was doing the same thing. I told him to remember that you have to stick your tongue out to say it. It was magic...always pronounces it right.