How To Teach The D Sound
To make the /d/ sound bring the tip of your tongue up and tap behind your teeth. Let the air explode out over your tongue as you bring it down. Turn your voice on by vibrating your vocal folds. This release of air and voicing will produce the /d/ sound.
At What Age Should a Child Say the D Sound?
Most English speaking children can say the D sound around age 2-3.*
What is the Difference Between d and /d/?
The written symbols, D and d, refer to the name of the letter “d”. When you see the d between diagonal lines /d/ that refers to the sound the letter d makes, /d/.
D is a letter name.
/d/ is the sound it makes.
What Are T and D Sounds?
T and D are paired together because they are made the same way, with one difference, our voice. The muscles in our mouth move the same way to make both sounds except our voice is “turned on” for the D and not the T. This means we vibrate or move our vocal folds as air passes through them to make a sound.
D is voiced.
T is unvoiced.
Try it!
Hold your hand to your throat and say /d/. Can you feel the vibration?
Now say the /t/ sound. Just air, no vibration.
(Learn more voiced and voiceless pairs of sounds here.)
How Do You Practice the D Sound?
It depends.
Understanding why your child is having difficulty making this sound is important. A speech therapist can do an evaluation to make a diagnosis. What words you choose and activities will vary depending on the cause.
Click here to read more about types of speech sound disorders and treatment
Initial D Word List
dad
dance
dark
day
deer
dentist
dig
dime
dinner
dip
dishes
dive
do
doctor
dog
doll
dolphin
done
door
dot
dough
down
duck
dump
Medial D Word List
body
butter
butterfly
computer
daddy
eating
hotdog
ladder
letter
reading
spider
sweater
Note: Some of these words have a t in the middle but we pronounce them with a /d/ sound. We say “sweader”, not “sweater”.
Final D Word List
add
bad
bed
bread
cried
dad
feed
food
good
hand
hide
kid
lid
loud
mad
mermaid
mud
played
red
ride
sad
sand
side
sled
Activity Ideas for Practicing the D Sound
Practice Common Words
Write down a list of words with D that your child uses. Think of as many things (nouns), actions (verbs), and descriptive words (adjectives) as you can.
Nouns: dad, dog, duck…
Verbs: dig, dip, dive…
Adjectives/Prepositions: down, good, sad…
Games and Toys
Look for games and toys that include a lot of D words.
play with dolls
dig in the sandbox
explore playdough
Books
Find books that have D words in them.
Think about characters, places, and objects (nouns)
What D action words does it have?
Does the book use descriptive words (adjectives with D words?)
Make your own D word book!
Speech Therapy Materials
Check out the resources on the right side of the page for ideas.
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* Resource
McLeod, S. & Crowe, K. (2018). Children’s consonant acquisition in 27 languages: A cross-linguistic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. doi:10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100. Available from: https://ajslp.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2701897
