Teacher Awareness Series II: Article Two – Ability to Rhyme

by Jean Schedler, Ph.D. Educational Consultant

Welcome to the second of six articles in Teacher Awareness Series II. Teacher Awareness Series II examines some of the early literacy or underlying skills of beginning reading. Series II builds upon the concepts discussed in Series I, which can be accessed on the Eduvac website.

In the first article of Series II, alphabet knowledge and knowledge of letter names (graphemes) was discussed.

The next underlying building block for reading success is awareness of the sounds of language and the ability to manipulate sounds.

A child’s ability to detect rhyme and then generate rhyme is an early indicator of the ease with which the child will learn to read.

Research demonstrates a strong link between children’s early abilities in phonemic awareness (awareness of the individual sounds of language) and their later reading skills.

Three-year-old children who have difficulty learning rhymes or rhyming songs may be at risk for reading difficulty. Four and five-year-old children should be able to generate rhymes and to match classmates’ names by initial sounds (e.g. Bob/Barbara). (Birsh, J., Ed. (2005), Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills. Brookes Publishing, pg.93).

Rhyme awareness can be encouraged through books of nursery rhymes, songs, poems, and sound play activities. Children listen to the read-alouds, join in once they know the rhymes, and ultimately create new verses.

A suggested activity would be to ask for volunteers to recite a popular nursery rhyme. Observe which students raise their hands to volunteer.

Then have the entire class recite the popular nursery rhyme. Observe which students struggle to participate. For those children who struggle to generate rhyme, direct, explicit instruction in phonological awareness may be required. Without explicit instruction these children may not catch the alliteration or phoneme manipulation in songs and games.

Teachers of young children may be a good resource in terms of suggesting rhymes, rhyming songs and fingerplay activities.

Suggested websites for materials:

Get Ready to Read! http://www.getreadytoread.org

Phonemic Awareness Activities for 4-5-6 Year Olds: http://www.iusd.k12.ca.us/parent_resources/phonemicawareness456.htm

To learn more about Dr Schedler’s 2010 Workshops and Trainings in Reading Intervention materials (Sonday System) contact Read Auckland at info@read
auckland.co.nz or call 09- 529 1381.