My child cant say thirteen or thirty?

Question

my child is almost 5. She cant say thirteen or thirty she says fourteen and fourty in place of thirteen and thirty. i have tryed a few excersices with her but it nots working. does anyone have any ideas on how i can get her passed it.

Answer 1

Please do not worry too much about this at the moment. The 'th' sound is actually a sound that children are not expected to articulate until they are 8 years old. The 'f' sound is the common substitution for 'th' for children, so what she is doing is actually quite normal for her age. If she is able to articulate most of her other sounds when speaking, then I wouldn't worry about it too much, just keep an eye on it over the next couple of years, and if she is still having trouble then, perhaps it would be a good idea to see a speech therapist.

Answer 2

Ok, so is it just thirteen and thirty she has trouble with? Can she correctly produce other words that start with the /th/ sound like 'that', 'this', or 'three'?

Here is a handout of age appropriate speech and sound development. http://www.uoregon.edu/~ecweb/handouts/c...

It says it is not age appropriate to learn the /th/ sound until age 6. That kind of thing is, of course, an approximation. If she cannot say it at all, if she always substitutes the /f/ sound for /th/, she may just not be ready to say /th/ yet. Practice the tongue movements and sound identification but don't truly worry for a little while.

For the numbers alone you can work with her in a few ways.

First of all, talk to her. Tell her what she needs to do differently. Explain that she is saying one sound when she should be saying another. Give her an example, and let her try to hear the difference.

You can use a mirror let her see you produce /th/ and she can try. Help her realize where her tongue is. I have a large mirror that we use so the child can see their face and my face in the mirror at the same time.

Help her hear the /th/ sound. When she hears you say a /th/ word she can clap, or raise her hands, whatever.

You can come up with a few f and th words. Like fish, friend, family, three, throw, and thank. Say the words to her, and have her categorize them into the thirty sound group or the forty sound group.

If she can recognize the difference very easily, it is a counting problem. Use a daily calendar and count the number of days so far in this month. That is nice because it covers the hard to learn teens and goes up past thirty. Use a hundreds and have her circle all the numbers that start with the /th/ sound, three, thirteen, thirty, thirty-one, etc. Have her say the number as she circles it and find a pattern, that is, they all have the number three in them.

You can play a game, you say circle thirty-six, and tally all the time she gets it right. Have her repeat the word as she circles the number. If she does not repeat correctly say no, you said fourth three that is this number. Which one is thirty-three?

Good luck.

Answer 3

She is just having trouble with the "Th" blend. Try words like Thursday, thirsty, bath, math, ect.

Answer 4

Try writing the numbers down backwards and have your child repeat them several  times. Also label some items that have 13 and 30 items in them and see if she catches on.

Answer 5

my son is in kindergarten,there is a girl in his class that cant say lots of words the correct way.don't worry about it just practice with your child.good luck

Answer 6

Don't worry about it. It sounds like she knows where 13 and 30 go, but she can't say it right just yet. She will grow out of it. Whenever you here her say it incorrectly, have her watch your mouth and tongue as you say it. Be sure to stress the "th" and "urrrrr" sounds. Say them slowly.

I wouldn't stress out about it, yet. It would be different if she was 7 or 8. At 5 years old she hasn't been talking long at all.

Answer 7

This is a very common problem with children at this age. It is her speech that is the problem. Go to any book store and buy some phonic books. Make sure they have at least a CD so she can hear how the letters break down to sound and how letter can blend. This will help teach her how to work her tongue. Be patient most grow out of this problem others will have a lisp that will need speech to help correct. I have a lisp and was not able to fix it, however I can speak clear enough to my class and understand when a problem with speech does occur.

Answer 8

I had the same problem growing up.  Her school may provide some speech therapy at no cost for her.  Ask the principal when she goes into Kindergarten.  

Try this.  As she says words that have the "th" sound in them, look and see if her tongue is sticking out between her teeth.  If it is, have her practice by forcing herself to put her tongue on the back side of her top teeth, behind the teeth, and saying a bunch of words with "th".  

A speech pathologist can do wonders with this.  It will take a decade or so to correct completely but I speak without a discernible impediment now. :)

Answer 9

Maybe she has difficulty pronouncing the TH word. Well, she's only 5 maybe when she gets a little older, she'll learn.  Just keep telling her about these two numbers or any words that start and sound like the TH until she'll do it in no time herself.

Answer 10

I am presuming that she literally can say 13 and 30, but from my understanding of your question, she has confused them with 14 and 40. What I would do is just practice practice practice...in the car, at meal times, count steps taken on a walk, count the bricks on a building. Counting objects or steps taken mean more than just saying numbers. You can also get pennies or buttons, beads,marbles and when you count them have her put them in groups of 10, then start teaching her how to skip count with the objects already divided in front of her - 10, 20, 30, 40, 50,etc,, Try making this fun and NEVER allow anyone to call her stupid or slow! She's doing fine!  Eventually she'll get it!

Answer 11

First of all, it's fairly common for a four-year-old to have a problem with the "th" sound, so don't be too alarmed.  Also, if she's counting and skipping 13 and going ahead to 14, it may be a counting problem.  If she's saying "firteen, fourteen" then it's a difficulty with speech.  I suggest having her speak in front of a mirror, preferably a magnifying mirror, so she can really see where her tongue is when she's trying to say some "th"  words.  The correct position of the tip of her tongue should be between her upper and lower front teeth.  Let her watch your tongue and mouth while you speak, too.  A good  demonstration will be a great help.  By the way, I disagree with the person who suggested that it might take a decade to solve the problem.  Unless  there's a problem with the structure of her mouth or tongue, it shouldn't take long at all once she's aware of the position of her tongue.