How To Teach The T Sound
To make the /t/ 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. The voice is turned off.
At What Age Should a Child Say the T Sound?
Most English speaking children can say the T sound around age 2-3.*
What is the Difference Between t and /t/?
The written symbols, T and t, refer to the name of the letter “T”. When you see the t between diagonal lines /t/ that refers to the sound the letter t makes, /t/.
T is a letter name.
/t/ 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 T 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 T Word List
taco
tail
take
tall
tape
tea
teeth
tell
ten
tie
tiger
toad
toast
toe
took
tool
top
toss
towel
town
toy
tub
tug
two
Medial T Word List
guitar
hotel
kitten
potato
Note: Why so few medial T words? These are just a few. However, many of the words that have a t in the middle are said with a /d/ sound, not the /t/ sound. We use the voice sound /d/ in words like “photo” and “butter” instead of the voiceless t.
Final T Word List
ant
bat
bite
boat
boot
cat
coat
cut
doughnut
eat
feet
fruit
get
goat
hat
hot
it
kite
not
pet
rabbit
robot
sit
wet
Activity Ideas for Practicing the T Sound
Practice Common Words
Write down a list of words with T that your child uses. Think of as many things (nouns), actions (verbs), and descriptive words (adjectives) as you can.
Nouns: toy, boat, cat…
Verbs: eat, get, cut…
Adjectives: hot, two, wet…
Games and Toys
Look for games and toys that include a lot of T words.
play with tools
have a tea party
fly a kite
Books
Find books that have T words in them.
Think about characters, places, and objects (nouns)
What T action words does it have?
Does the book use descriptive words (adjectives with T words?)
Make your own T 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
