Stopping in Speech: Examples, Ages by Sound, Minimal Pairs, and Activities

Stopping is a phonological pattern in which a child replaces a long, airy sound with a short "stop" sound: fun becomes pun, see becomes tee, shop becomes top, jump becomes dump. It fades sound by sound. Stopping of /f/ and /s/ is typically gone by about age 3, stopping of "sh", "ch", and "j" by about 4½ to 5, and stopping of "th" by about 5 (ASHA; Bowen).

This guide covers what stopping sounds like, the age it fades for each sound, how to tell it apart from similar patterns, and how to treat it with minimal pairs, cues, and word lists.

Stopping at a glance

What is stopping in speech?

ASHA defines stopping as a pattern in which "a fricative and/or an affricate is replaced with a stop sound", with examples such as /pʌn/ for fun, /ti/ for see, /tɔp/ for shop, and /dæt/ for that (ASHA Practice Portal). Fricatives are the sounds with continuous, hissing airflow: /f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, "sh", and both "th" sounds. Affricates are "ch" and "j", which start like a stop and finish like a fricative. Stops are /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, and /g/.

The difference is easy to feel. You can hold a fricative for as long as you have breath: "ssss", "ffff", "shhhh". You cannot hold a stop: /t/, /p/, and /d/ close the mouth completely and release the air in one short burst. A child who stops replaces the long, airy sound with the short one, usually keeping the voicing and a similar place in the mouth:

• /s/ becomes /t/ and /z/ becomes /d/: sun becomes tun, zoo becomes doo

• /f/ becomes /p/ and /v/ becomes /b/: fan becomes pan, van becomes ban

• "sh", "ch", and "j" become /t/ or /d/: shoe becomes too, chin becomes tin, jump becomes dump

• The two "th" sounds become /t/ or /d/: thick becomes tick, they becomes day

Stopping examples by sound

Stopping is often uneven. A child may already say /f/ well but still stop "sh" and "th", or stop sounds at the start of words but not at the end. Testing each sound in each position shows where the pattern is still active. Our verified lists are split that way, for example initial S, final S, initial F, initial SH, and initial CH.

When does stopping stop? Ages by sound

Stopping does not fade all at once. Each sound has its own timeline, and the earlier sounds go first:

Sources: ASHA's table of selected phonological patterns, Bowen's table of phonological processes, and Crowe & McLeod (2020), a review of 15 US studies covering 18,907 children.

The two process charts differ by about half a year for most sounds, which is normal for this kind of data; our phonological processes chart explains why. The last column measures something different: not when stopping disappears, but when the sound itself is fully correct. The gap between the two is expected. For /s/, Crowe and McLeod, summarizing Smit (1993), report that it "was frequently stopped (produced as [t, d]) when the children were younger, produced as a dentalized /s/ or postalveolar consonant when older." A four-year-old whose /s/ is long and hissy but not quite right has usually moved past stopping, even though the sound is not finished.

When to look closer: stopping of /f/ and /s/ that is still frequent at 4, or stopping of "sh", "ch", and "j" well past 5, is worth an evaluation, especially if the child is hard to understand or shows several other patterns. ASHA's guidance: "Phonological patterns that persist, or phonological patterns that are atypical, lead to a diagnosis of phonological disorders."

Stopping or something else?

A few patterns are easy to confuse with stopping:

• Deaffrication. Ship for chip is not stopping: the affricate "ch" became the fricative "sh", so the airflow got longer, not shorter. Stopping would be tip for chip.

• F for TH. Fink for think or baf for bath swaps one fricative for another. It is a common substitution, but it is not stopping.

• Final consonant deletion. Bu for bus drops the sound entirely; but for bus replaces it with a stop. See our guide to final consonant deletion.

• A lisp. In a lisp, /s/ is still a long, airy sound; the air just goes over the tongue tip or out the sides. Stopping turns /s/ into a short /t/.

• Dialect. In several American English dialects, African American English among them, dis for this and dat for that are regular features of the dialect. ASHA's guidance is that "dialectal varieties of a language that do not produce certain sounds would not be considered an error pattern" (ASHA), and that "no dialectal variety of American English is a disorder or a pathological form of speech or language" (ASHA, 2003).

How do you treat stopping? Minimal pairs

Minimal pairs are the classic treatment. In Weiner's 1981 study of the "meaningful minimal contrast" method, stopping of fricatives was one of three patterns treated in two children, alongside final consonant deletion and velar fronting. The method reduced all three, with generalization to words that were not trained (Weiner, 1981). ASHA notes that phonological contrast approaches "are frequently used to address phonological error patterns" (ASHA Practice Portal).

Stopping produces good pairs, because the stopped word is often a real word. These are checked against the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so each pair differs by exactly one sound in American English:

• /s/ vs /t/: sea–tea, sip–tip, sail–tail, sack–tack, sew–toe, seal–teal

• /f/ vs /p/: fan–pan, fork–pork, fur–purr, fort–port, fin–pin, fig–pig, fill–pill

• /v/ vs /b/: van–ban, vest–best, vote–boat

• /z/ vs /d/: zip–dip

• "sh" vs /t/: ship–tip, shop–top, shower–tower, shack–tack

• "ch" vs /t/: chin–tin, chip–tip, chick–tick, chop–top

• "j" vs /d/: jug–dug, jam–dam, jump–dump, jet–debt

• "th" vs /t/ or /d/: thick–tick, thorn–torn, thigh–tie, they–day, though–dough

• End of the word: kiss–kit, bus–but, laugh–lap, wife–wipe, hoof–hoop, catch–cat, match–mat, coach–coat, cash–cat

The child asks for a picture; if they say tea when they want the sea, they get the tea. That consequence is the point: it shows the child that the long sound changes the meaning. For session structure and how many pairs to use, see our guide to minimal pairs in speech therapy.

Which stopped sounds should you work on first?

• Developmental order suggests starting with the sounds expected first: /f/ and /s/, then /v/ and /z/, then "sh", "ch", and "j", with "th" last.

• Intelligibility points the same way for /s/ and /z/: they carry plurals and possessives (cats, dogs, Mom's), so stopping them costs a lot of meaning.

• The complexity approach argues that a later, harder target can spread change more widely across the sound system (Gierut, 2001).

Whichever route you choose, a quick stimulability check, whether the child can produce the sound when you model it, shows where early success is likely.

Cues for long sounds

Children who stop often need to discover that some sounds are long. Simple cues SLPs use:

• Long sound, short sound. Contrast a snake ("ssss", long) with a ticking clock ("t-t-t", short). Ask for the snake sound before the word: "ssss-un" for sun.

• Feel the air. Hold the child's hand in front of your mouth for "ffff" or "shhhh". A stop gives one puff; a fricative gives a steady stream.

• Bite and blow. For /f/ and /v/, rest the top teeth lightly on the lower lip and blow.

• Stretch, then shrink. Start with an exaggerated long sound ("ffffish"), then shorten it each time until the word sounds natural.

Stopping activities (no prep)

• Sea or tea? Lay out two pictures and say one word. The child points; then swap roles and hand over whichever card the child actually said.

• Snake race. Each correct /s/ word moves a paper snake one square. The longer the "ssss", the better.

• Air or pop sort. Sort picture cards into "air sounds" (fan, sun, shoe) and "pop sounds" (pan, top, two).

• Move up the levels. Once words are mostly correct, move to SH phrases, CH phrases, F phrases, and TH phrases.

Themed sets help with long runs of drill: initial S food words and initial F nature words are ready-made. When you need a printable minimal pairs set for stopping with both words pictured, Ga-loo builds one in a minute, with a data sheet and a black-and-white home page.

Frequently asked questions

At what age should stopping stop?

Stopping fades sound by sound. ASHA and Bowen both put stopping of /f/ and /s/ at about 3. "Sh", "ch", and "j" follow at 4½ (Bowen) to 5 (ASHA), and "th" at about 5. Frequent stopping well past these ages is a reason for an evaluation.

Is it normal for a 3-year-old to say "tun" for "sun"?

Around 3 it is common. Both charts list stopping of /s/ as typically gone by about 3, and /s/ is one of the two sounds whose age of mastery varies most across studies (Crowe & McLeod, 2020). If a child still says tun for sun most of the time at 4, or uses several other patterns, ask an SLP to take a look.

Is saying "dat" for "that" stopping?

In a young child it can be: stopping of the "th" in that is typically gone by about 5. But in several American English dialects, dat for that is a normal feature of the dialect rather than an error, and ASHA does not treat dialect features as error patterns.

What is the difference between stopping and a lisp?

In stopping, /s/ becomes a short stop such as /t/ (tun for sun). In a lisp, /s/ stays long and airy but sounds wrong because the tongue or the airflow is in the wrong place. Stopping is a phonological pattern; a lisp is an articulation error, and they are treated differently.

What are the best minimal pairs for stopping?

Pairs where both words are easy to picture: sea–tea, sail–tail, fan–pan, fork–pork, van–ban, ship–tip, chin–tin, jam–dam, and thick–tick.

Sources are linked throughout, including ASHA's Practice Portal on articulation and phonology and Caroline Bowen's table of phonological processes by age. Educational content: an SLP chooses the approach for a specific child.