Deaffrication: When Kids Say “Ship” for “Chip” and “Zhob” for “Job”

✓ Reviewed against ASHA Selected Phonological Patterns, ASHA Practice Portal, Crowe & McLeod (2020)Evidence level ALast reviewed October 14, 2026Published October 14, 2026

Deaffrication is when CH or J loses its starting “stop” and becomes a smooth fricative: “ship” for “chip,” “zhob” for “job.” ASHA lists it as usually gone by about age 4. It is the mirror image of stopping, where CH and J become “t” and “d.” Practice by adding the “t” or “d” pop back to the front of the sound.

What deaffrication is

English has two affricates: CH (as in “chip”) and J (as in “job”). Each is a stop and a fricative welded together — CH is “t” released into “sh,” J is “d” released into “zh.” Deaffrication is the phonological process in which the stop part is dropped and only the fricative is left. ASHA’s examples are “ship” for “chip” and “zhob” for “job.”¹

What deaffrication sounds like.
Target	Becomes	Examples
CH (/tʃ/)	SH (/ʃ/)	“ship” for “chip,” “shair” for “chair,” “wash” for “watch”
J (/dʒ/)	ZH (/ʒ/)	“zhob” for “job,” “zhump” for “jump”

What deaffrication sounds like.

Deaffrication vs. stopping

Because an affricate has two halves, a child can lose either one — and the two errors have different names and different typical ages in ASHA’s table.¹

Two ways to simplify CH and J (ages from ASHA, Selected Phonological Patterns).
	Deaffrication	Stopping
What is kept	The fricative (airflow)	The stop (pop)
CH example	“ship” for “chip”	“top” for “chop”
J example	“zhob” for “job”	“dump” for “jump”
Usually gone by about	4	5 (for SH, CH, J, voiced TH)

Two ways to simplify CH and J (ages from ASHA, Selected Phonological Patterns).¹

The sounds themselves arrive in the 4-year band: in Crowe & McLeod’s review of 18,907 US children, CH and J were acquired at 4;0–4;11 at the 90% criterion, and on average all affricates were acquired by 4;11. ASHA’s 3-to-4-year milestones name j, sh, and ch among the later sounds a 4-year-old may still get wrong.^3,5

How SLPs treat deaffrication

Deaffrication is usually treated with contrast pairs that differ only in whether the stop is there — “chip” / “ship,” “chop” / “shop” — so the child hears and feels that the “pop” changes the word. ASHA describes minimal pairs as helping establish contrasts not yet in the child’s sound system, and a 2022 tutorial recommends conventional minimal pairs mainly for children with a small number of errors.^2,4

To build the sound itself, SLPs shape it from sounds the child already has — CH from a held “t” released into “sh,” J from a held “d” released into “zh” — and then carry it up through syllables, words, phrases, and conversation, the progression ASHA calls generalization.²

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How CH and J practice works in SpeechStep

For CH and J, practice uses listen-and-compare: your child records the word, plays it next to a clear model, and you judge the try together — with an optional human review of tricky recordings. (Automatic AI verdicts are currently offered for the R sound only.)

Free CH Sound Practice

Practice CH words with listen-and-compare: your child records the word, hears a clear model, and you compare the two together.

Try it free →

Home practice: add the pop

1Feel the difference. Hand in front of the mouth: SH is one long, steady stream; CH starts with a little burst.
2Build it from T. Hold the tongue tip up as for “t,” then let it go into “sh”: “t…sh,” faster and faster until it snaps into “ch.”
3Play the pairs. Two pictures, one word each — let your child “order” the right one.
4Climb up. Words, then phrases (“chocolate chip”), then sentences.

CH vs. SH: chip / ship · chop / shop · cheap / sheep · chair / share · chin / shin · watch / wash · catch / cash · match / mash
J vs. ZH: there are few everyday English pairs — practice J words such as jump, juice, jam, giraffe, and bridge, listening for the “d” at the start.

When to get help

Deaffrication is still consistent after about age 4½.
CH, J, and SH are all affected and your child is hard to understand.
Several other patterns are present.

By 4 to 5, ASHA expects most consonants to be produced correctly and speech to be understandable in conversation, and names being hard to understand as a sign of a speech sound disorder. ASHA also notes that differences rooted in a child’s dialect are not a disorder. Find a certified speech-language pathologist through ASHA’s ProFind directory.^6,8,7,9,10

Frequently asked questions

What is deaffrication?＋

Deaffrication is a phonological process in which an affricate — CH (/tʃ/) or J (/dʒ/) — is replaced by a fricative. The child drops the stop at the start of the sound and keeps only the airflow. ASHA’s examples are “ship” for “chip” and “zhob” for “job.”

At what age should deaffrication stop?＋

ASHA lists the likely age of elimination for deaffrication as about 4. CH and J themselves are acquired at 4;0–4;11 at the 90% criterion in US data, and on average all affricates were acquired by 4;11.

What is the difference between deaffrication and stopping?＋

They are opposite halves of the same sound. An affricate is a stop plus a fricative. Deaffrication keeps the fricative and drops the stop (“ship” for “chip”); stopping keeps the stop and drops the fricative (“top” for “chop”). ASHA gives them different typical ages: about 4 for deaffrication, about 5 for stopping of CH and J.

Is “sh for ch” always deaffrication?＋

In child speech development, “ship” for “chip” is the textbook example. But some English dialects and speakers of other first languages pronounce CH and SH differently, and ASHA is explicit that dialect patterns are not error patterns. Compare your child with the adults they hear every day.