DS11 can't say 'th'

[TamaraDeLempicky]

DS11, who has ASD and ADHD, said last week that he wanted to watch a movie called 'Four' on TV. I said he couldn't watch it because it was late, and I also questioned what it was about. "Four? You haven't heard of Four?" came the reply. I don't like movies so wasn't surprised that I hadn't heard of it. To cut a long story short, I found out the film was 'Thor', which I had heard of!

Anyway, my question is - is it normal for a child of this age to not be able to pronounce 'th'. My DD6 can't pronounce it either but I would say that's quite normal.

I would say an 11 year old should be able to make all the sounds in English.

Is he willing to practice? Bet there are some speech therapy videos on Youtube to help him isolate the sound and what to do with mouth. I was thinking of you and the difference between the 'th' sounds in 'than' and 'thistle'. The second (as in Thor, obviously) means tip of your tongue goes between your teeth and you make a ssssss sound which makes a 'th' because of the tongue. Not a speech therapist just trying to figure it out!

Our DS is 9 and has ADD. He has blurry speech which we are working on with help of speech and lang.

My husband, no ASD, cannot pronounce “th” sounds (well he tries, but they aren’t very clear and sound a bit like a mash-up between a V and an F). He had speech therapy as a child and it didn’t really make any difference. He has no problem with any other sounds.