Why Does My Child Need To Know How To Rhyme?

If you have ever sung a childhood rhyme or read a Dr. Seuss book, you recognize that rhyming is a big part of children’s lives. But why?

Rhyming is a really hard concept to explain. Luckily, most kids pick up on it from these sources intuitively, but many children do not. I used to explain that rhyming words sound the same at the end. But then why don’t bed and nab rhyme? So, I explain that they sound the same in the middle and end of the word. Well, what about two syllable rhymes? Seven and eleven rhyme, even though one is 2 syllables and one is 3, but seven and dozen do not.

Rhyming is so complex because it is a higher-level phonological awareness skill. Phonological awareness is explained as the rules of sounds and an ability to manipulate sounds. This includes a child being able to identify sounds and words, be able to identify the number of sounds or syllables in words, blend sounds and syllables, change/add/delete a sound in a word to create a new word, and rhyming.

Phonological awareness skills are crucial and essential for reading success. Being able to first auditorily understand and manipulate sounds allows you to be able to do so in written form and understand phoneme-grapheme (sound and written letter) relationships. Early phonological awareness skills help with early reading and writing skills such as sounding out words and spelling. This decoding stage of reading happens between kindergarten and second grade, so it is best that a child is mastering these phonological awareness skills before they even get to kindergarten.

So, back to our main question: why does your child need to know how to rhyme? If your preschool-age child does not like rhyming songs or seems bored by rhyming stories, these may be signs that they are struggling with phonological awareness skills. Other signs are not being able to identify sounds in words (example: What is the first sound in your name? What’s the first sound in the word ____?), difficulty with keeping rhythm in finger-play songs (ex: Can they clap along with the BINGO song?), and difficulty with identifying same sounds (Ex: Let’s think of as many words as we can that start with the /s/ sound).

Now that we know why they need to rhyme, let me tell you a bit about why a speech-language pathologist (SLP) cares if your child knows how to rhyme or has a mastery of other phonological awareness skills. SLPs are often times on the front-line defense in schools for reading difficulty with students. They help with auditory comprehension of sounds and sound manipulation for students. Furthermore, research has shown that students with articulation errors, even an /r/ or an /s/ sound, have more difficulty with phonological awareness skills (Preston, Hull, & Edwards, 2013). The rate of difficulty increases with the more sounds in error. Children with apraxia (a motor speech disorder) are at the highest risk for further reading difficulty down the road (Marion, Sussman, & Marquardt, 1993; McNeill, Gillon, & Dodd, 2009a). This is why it is best practice for an SLP to assess phonological awareness skills for students with articulation errors in schools. If you are a parent, do not be afraid to ask your SLP if they assessed phonological awareness skills.

So, with all of this new information, what can you do at home to help your 3-5 year old child with phonological awareness? Rhymes and finger-play songs are really where we start. That is why they are so popular! Find a few that your child loves that works on different skills: clapping out words/syllables (ex: Patty Cake), rhyming (ex: “Down By The Bay”, where a child even has to try to come up with their own rhyme), and alliteration skills/the same starting sound in words (ex: Peter Piper, There Was A Crooked Man). Books help a lot with this too and you don’t even have to try to come up with new rhymes or ways to work on these skills. A children’s librarian is well versed in phonological awareness skills and can help you find books that work on these skills (for free!). If you feel like your child may have even more difficulty with phonological awareness, or like their articulation skills are not age-appropriate, reach out to an SLP for more information. We are available as well at Rehabilitation Specialists for any questions or concerns. Until next time!

Kathleen

Additional Resources:

https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities/reading-issues/phonological-awareness-what-it-is-and-how-it-works

ATTENTION: This website is awesome! Please check it out! http://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/phonologicalphonemic

Research articles mentioned:

Marion, J., Sussman, H. M., & Marquardt, T. P. (1993). The perception and production of rhyme in normal and developmentally apraxic children. Journal of Communication Disorders, 26, 129–160.

McNeill, B. C., Gillon, G. T., & Dodd, B. (2009a). A longitudinal case study of the effects of an integrated phonological awareness program for identical twin boys with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 11(6), 482–495.

Preston, J. L., Hull, M., & Edwards, M. L. (2013). Preschool speech error patterns predict articulation and phonological awareness outcomes in children with histories of speech sound disorders. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 22, 173-184. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2012/12-0022)