Another Speech Question - Sorry!

My 5 year old does the same thing, so I asked my SIL about it. She's a speech therapist in an elementary school. She said it's age appropriate and that most kids should be able to do the "th" sound by age 7.

My daughter is the same way and she will be 5 next month. She also has trouble with V's they are b's. Her teacher said its normal. I work with her. I told her she has a lazy tongue. We work on her th's and v's.

I've been reading those too. She's fine. I just had my 4 yo screened and was told that 'th' (as well as 'l' , 'r', 'ch', 'j' and s blends like 'smart' or 'swim') is not expected to be produced correctly until about 6. So I said, "should I correct him?" "No, he can't make the sound b/c he's not developmentally ready. Just model correct speech and it will happen naturally."

Totally normal. My son's speech therapist gave us a worksheet that says this, for the age at which children can usually master certain sounds:
3-4 years: p, b, m, w, h and all vowels
5-6 years: d, t, n, g, k, f, y, ng
7-8 years: r, l, s, ch, sh, z, j, v, th, sh

My older daughter did that, except "sp" became "f." (The itsy bitsy Fider went up the water Fout... too cute!) To try and help her, I would stand in front of the mirror with her (while I did her hair, or after she brushed her teeth) and I would say "sssssssssss-p! SP! Spaghetti!" And she would say, "sssssss-p! F! Faghetti!" (Oh well!) Eventually she got it, probably just before she turned 5. A speech therapist friend told me that it's a good idea to do this in front of a mirror so the child can see how your mouth makes the sound (where your tongue goes, if your teeth are together or not, etc) and then try to make their mouths do the same things.

My younger daughter had a ton of speech issues (nobody could understand that poor child, which frustrated her terribly). We did the same thing with her - we would pick one sound at a time and work on that until she could say it with her mouth in the correct positions. We tried to keep it low-key. She was actually speaking pretty clearly by the time she was 4.5 or so. Most kids outgrow this by the time they are 6, I was told.

My poor sister's name is Sarah and so until about 1st grade she said her name was "Thara". Lol. So cute! It's a very common issue with that age group.

Tongue sandwich. Stand in front of a mirror with her and tell her to put her teeth on her tongue and make a tongue sandwich. Then blow out the candle with that tongue sandwich.

Totally normal. My little 4 year old guy still does this too. He's a little sensitive about it so we're working on it, but not pushing it.

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Yup, still totally normal. Both of my girls conquered the "th" sound in kindergarten.

Just last night though I sent an email to my youngest child's first grade teacher asking how I go about getting her evaluated for some speech issues I have. When I brought it up in K I was told it was considered age appropriate until age 7, which she turned 3 wks ago. She still uses the W sound for R and L. So her friend Lila is Wiwa. And she has this weird accent going on....her words "bird" and "board" and also "shirt" and "short" sound exactly the same. It's sad when her friends don't understand her. :(

You're little one is right on target though, give it another couple years!

my son has issues with L. he is almost four. i would tell the mother of the child as she can work with her on it. she might just be babying her a bit. we work with our son and correct it as we were never those parents that thought baby talk was cute. like if he thinks something is true which it is not we tell him. " no sugar frogs dont grow wings and fly". and we also correct his speech. but the word blue is more like blllaalllue lol he really flicks that l out there after i corrected it!

That sounds pretty normal for her age.

That's totally normal speech for that age

you can help her make the 'th' sound by practicing putting your tongue between your teeth with her. Make it fun and silly so it will make it more exciting for her.

When I had one child evaluated, as the speech therapist was working with her, she would point out that they didn't "worry" about certain sounds until a certain grade.... (I don't remember which sounds... this was 20 years ago!).

Also, with my daughter, she was very willing to say it over if someone didn't understand her...some kids, if asked to repeat what they said, won't... that is one point that they would be concerned about, also.

My grand daughter is 4 and has a few quirks in her speach. She has a tough time making the R sound. So her teacher is Misto Bwian, instead of Mr. Brian. But she can say tree just fine. She says "squirrelo" and "worload for squirrel and world. She has gotton past saying she wants to go outside and pway, and says play now. For the most part her speach is great and we understand almost everything she says. She of course has a few funny things she says but its more not knowing what the real word is and not a speach problem. I love when she spins around and then says, "whoa,,Im busy"..instead of dizzy. And she likes to eat "prencils", instead of pretzels. And last night when she asked me to help her do something I said,"oh lucky me!" and she said, "yep lucky meat"... Just love how it comes out sometimes and we arent worried at all.

Some really great ideas on how you can help her with this this sound:

http://www.atticacsd.org/webpages/hhinze/resources.cfm?su...

http://www.righttrackreading.com/tipstosaysounds.html

(kind of corny/spooky puppet show)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o4EvvboXL4