Helping Kids Say 'Th' Instead of 'S'

Sometimes, our usual strategies just don’t seem to work for those common, and sometimes stubborn speech errors like substituting “th” for “s”. A few years ago I was stumped by one of my young clients kept substituting “th” for “s” – saying “thick” instead of “sick” and “thing” instead of “sing” – even after I tried all my usual cues. I knew I had to think outside the box.

I decided to use a story to build their understanding of this speech concept, give us a metaphor cue we could then use in therapy and help them understand why we were even working on it in therapy in the first place. Watch me explain this approach below.

Every child learns differently, and it’s our job to discover the key that makes it click for each one. By linking the new concepts to ideas that are already familiar to them, and then connecting those ideas to what we are asking them to do in speech therapy, we are giving the child the best chance of success in therapy. If you find that your usual methods aren’t working, try using creative stories and metaphors to see if they resonate with your clients. Sometimes, all it takes is a little imagination to make the difference.

You can download your own version of the “snake out of the cage” story here (and be sure to check out our other phonology stories).

This is a great resource for my students who lisp. It really helps tune them in to what it sounds like when they stick out their tongue when saying /s/ rather than keeping it behind their teeth. It makes them aware that it changes the whole meaning of the word.

The 'snake in the cage' metaphor is useful for clearly explaining the s/th pattern to students. Engaging minimal pair cards to help students with auditory discrimination and production and to understand the different meanings between the word pairs.

Love the metaphor used in their sound story! It was really helpful for my student who was confusing s and th