TH Sound Practice! Winter themed /TH/ Articulation Packet

Link to TH packet at Teachers Pay Teachers

Link to TH packet at Teachers Notebook

Looking for a comprehensive therapy packet for working on the voiced and unvoiced /TH/ sounds? Well, we've put this together just for you!  We hope you will love the winter theme.

Contents:
Page 5: Directions for the Winter Articulation Board Game.
Pages 7-15: Have fun playing the Winter Articulation Board Game! several /TH/ words in the initial, medial and final positions have been provided.
Pages 16: Trace the line and “warm up” your /TH/.
Pages 17-19: Say the words to continue with your /th/ warm up.
Pages 20-22:Find the initial, medial and final position /th/ words in the crossword puzzles.
Pages 23-25:/TH/ Word Roll. Write the word and say it the total number times shown on the die. See which word “wins” by being the first one to get written in the fifth space.
Pages 26-28:Tic –Tac-Toe boards for /th/ words.
Pages 29-31: 3 pages of initial, medial and final position /TH/ cards for a fun Memory Match Game.
Pages 32-34:Connect -The- Dots Game for initial, medial and final position /TH/ words. Say the word and draw one line. Take turns with a partner. Try to make a square.
Pages 35-37:Seek - ‘N’ - Find the pictures words. Repeat the words in the sentence, “I found the ___”.
Page 38: Connect the sentence to the picture.
Pages 39-42: /TH/ Hangman Games. Grab an extra person to play this game. Guess the words on the line one letter at a time before a hangman is formed.
Pages 43-45:Repeat or read aloud the /TH/ sentences.
Page 46: Practice your /TH/ in a paragraph.
Page 47: Carryover practice with /TH/ in mind!

To say “TH,” we have to place our tongue between our front teeth. The tongue needs to stick out just a little to make the  correct sound. We blow air quietly out for the soft “th” likein “Thursday.” We turn our voice boxes “on” and make a noisier sound for the hard “th” like in “that.”

The /TH/ sound in the English language is really used in two ways, creating two separate sounds. Even though both versions of the /TH/ sound are produced with the same mouth position, the voiced /TH/ uses the vocal cords to amplify the sound, such as in “that”, “them” and “therefore”. The unvoiced /TH/ sound relies only on the air passing through the mouth and the teeth resulting in a softer /TH/ sound in words like “Thursday”, “thermostat, and “thaw”. The voiceless /TH/ is usually mastered by age 5 or 6, but the voiced /TH/ may still be mispronounced by many children until

age 7.

To make either sound, place the very tip of your tongue lightly between your teeth and blow air through. This naturally makes the unvoiced /TH/ sound. Add your voice, the vibration of your vocal cords, to create the voiced /TH/ sound.  The tip of the tongue should be pointed and placed slightly between the top and bottom front teeth. Lips should be shaped in a slight smile.. You can feel the difference between the voiceless vs. the voiced /TH/ sounds if you place your hand on your throat when you say each sound. You should feel vibration when you say a word such as “smother”  and no vibration when you say “three”. You can also feel air flowing out of the mouth when saying the voiceless /TH/ sound.

 

/TH/  Sound Teaching Tips

 

For the voiceless /TH/ say, “Put your tongue between your teeth and push air from behind your tongue”. For the voiced /TH/ say, “Put your tongue between your teeth and turn your voice on while you push air from behind your tongue.

 

To teach the voiced /TH/ (turning voice on), it may be taught by having him say “zzzz,” then gradually having him move his tongue forward to between his teeth.

 

Demonstrate /TH/ using a mirror. Instruct the child to “bite your tongue and blow.”

 

Use the tactile cue of showing the /TH/ and demonstrate how you can feel the burst of air when your put your hand in front of your mouth during the /TH/ production.

 

If the child substitutes  /F/ or /V/ for /TH/, draw his attention to the use of the tongue and teeth to make the sound. The teeth and lip should not make contact. Practice “f-th-f-th” to contrast the two sounds. If necessary, gently push the lower lip out of the way.

 

Produce the /D/ sound and the /TH/ sound while looking in the mirror and learn to see the difference between the two sounds.

 

Have your child practice the /TH/ in isolation until it is easy for him. This helps your child understand what sound to focus on and gives them a correct example to imitate. Gradually add vowels to form simple syllables: “tho,” and, “the”. Then see if the child can imitate the sounds in word , phrase and eventually sentence imitation.

 

**Here is a video of the /TH/ being produced. It is provided by the University of Iowa’s phonetics program. 

Click on "Place" then click on "Lingua-Dental"

Link to video of /th/ being produced.