can your pre-schooler say "th" as in "the" or "that"?

[VodkaAndTonic]

My DD1 (aged 3.5 yrs) does not say "th", instead, depending on the word, she says:

• dat (for that)
• sanks (for thanks)
• Kaffy (Kathy)

How usual is this at her age?

Not sure whether to consult a SALT, yet or let it take its course and hopefully correct itself in due course.

FI: we are a bilingual family living abroad and the nursery she goes to is not English-speaking so no-one professional has picked up this mistake yet. But I have noticed and some family members (the English ones) have made some (gentle) comments.

Oddly, dd (2.11) has always been able to say 'th'. She was speaking very fluently at 18 months with few errors.

She does, however, still struggle with l sometimes and substitutes a v instead. Evephants for example. She also reversed sounds, still does on occasion. Yellow was leyow (not lellow)and television was tevelision. I don't worry about it tbh.

I couldn't say Th until I was about 10. A significant proportion of the population of Kent go through their whole lives without being able to say Th - doesn;t seem to bother them!

Interesting Caroline Bowen link - thanks for that. Dd (just over 4) gets it right in some instances but not others. Most notably neither her nor her big brother often pronounce her name -which starts with a Th - correctly...

And dd is terrifyingly verbal.