About this activity
Twelve words ending in the voiceless /th/: bath, math, teeth, mouth, path, tooth, both, fourth, south, north, moth, earth. Final position is the harder half for this sound — the tongue has to come forward between the teeth and stay there while the word finishes, with no vowel to run into.
How to use it in a session
Show the tongue. /th/ is one of the few sounds fully visible, and asking a child to watch your tongue tip between your teeth is faster than any description. Hold the final sound in your model — bathhhh — so it is audible at all, since a final /th/ in ordinary speech is very quiet. Six minutes covers the twelve.
What to listen for
Listen for /f/ replacing it, which is the standard substitution and is a normal developmental pattern in young children — bath becoming baf. Watch fourth, north and south, where the /th/ follows another consonant and the tongue has to travel further; those three are consistently the hardest in this set.
Carrying it home
Bath, teeth, mouth and math come up in ordinary days. Asking a family to listen for the end of one word gives them something concrete, and /th/ is visible enough that they can see whether it happened.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Second through fifth. /th/ is one of the last sounds to develop, so it stays a target longer than most.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all twelve cards play free.
- My child says 'baf' for 'bath'. Is that a concern?
- It is a very common pattern and /th/ is among the last sounds to develop — in a young child it is often within the expected range. Age matters a great deal in deciding whether it needs work.