/th/ Voiceless — Spelling
Articulation · Grades 2–5 · 10 cards
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Ask for the first two letters, then segment the rest. The th is never in doubt here; thumb, thigh and throne are the words that need explaining rather than sounding out, since each contains letters that are not pronounced. Group the cluster words — three, thread, throne — together, since they share a shape as well as a difficulty.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentAfter building each word, the student says it aloud. Wait 3 seconds.Log as correct
- Visual cuePoint to your mouth, or show the mouth picture for voiceless /th/, before the student tries again.Log as cued
- Verbal modelSay the word; the student says it right after you.Log as cued
- Placement cueTongue tip peeks out between your teeth. Blow air gently over it with your voice off.Log as cued
Adjust it
Drop to syllables ('thah' and 'thoo'), or use fewer cards.
Put each word in a short carrier phrase with no /th/ in it.
Matching IEP goal
Given word cards, Student will produce voiceless /th/ in single words in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than a visual cue.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
The ten voiceless /th/ words — think, three, thin, thumb, thread, throne, thick, thaw, thigh, theme — as a spelling task. Derived from the flashcard deck. The digraph is the same in every one, which leaves the rest of each word as the difficulty: thumb has a silent b, thigh has a silent gh, and theme has a silent e.
What to listen for
Watch the silent letters. Thumb without its b and thigh without its gh are both phonetically excellent answers and orthographically wrong, and they are best taught as whole words rather than corrected by rule. Notice whether the th is written as one movement or two separate letters, which shows whether the digraph is a chunk yet.
Carrying it home
Ask which two letters start think, then three, then thumb. Three questions and ten seconds, and the repetition across different words is what makes the pattern.
What's in this activity
- think
- three
- thin
- thumb
- thread
- throne
- thick
- thaw
- thigh
- theme
Questions
- How is this different from the flashcards?
- Same ten words, built from letters. The digraph is consistent, so the spelling work is in the silent letters and the vowels.
- Do I need to sign in?
- No, it plays free with no account.
- Why does 'thumb' have a b?
- It is a historical spelling — the b was once pronounced. There is no rule to work it out, so it is a whole word to learn rather than to sound out.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.