Page 132 - Reading Nest - The Supportive Literacy Environment Handbook

Games with rhyming, counting out rhymes

The Estonian kindergarten teachers also mentioned in their interviews that in addition to
reading a bedtime story they use hand and clapping games and counting out games daily

or a few times a week: during the morning gathering, language and speech activities, free

time etc. Researchers have studied the effect of rhyming games and counting out rhymes
on the evolution of language awareness and speech in children. Similarly sounding words

which are repeated again and again (often with rhythmic movements or clapping, e.g. patty
cake, patty cake), create and strengthen synapses in the brain’s language production area,

the word becomes familiar and is added to a vocabulary pool. Playing with a pair of words

which differ by one sound e.g. CAT-MAT or PITTER-PATTER, helps learning to
distinguish sounds and words, which prepares for phonological awareness. Several study

results indicate that the use of counting out rhymes, rhyming games and poems sustains
future development of spelling and reading: children who love singing and playing word

games by e.g. swapping first letters in words and inventing rhyming words, often improve

their perception and awareness of phonemes.