Teaching How to Rhyme

Help Your Child Improve Auditory Skills by Teaching How to RhymeKnowing how to rhyme will help your child read word "families" such as let, met, pet, wet, and get. Notice that rhyming words have same sound endings but different beginning sounds. Some words don't look the same: ache, cake, steak but they rhyme. To teach your child how to rhyme, play a game. Body Name GameHow to Play: Begin by modeling how to rhyme. Point to parts of your body, say a rhyming word and your child should say the body part. This puts rhyming into her ears with a visual cue (pointing). If you point to your nose and say rose, she will automatically say nose.

1. Tell your child, "We are going to play a rhyming game. Rhyming words have the same sound endings. I'm going to point to something on my body, and say a word. You're going to say the body part that rhymes. Okay?"
2. Give her two examples: "I'm pointing to my leg, and I say beg. You say leg. I'm pointing to my nose. I say rose, and you say nose.
3. Here's a list of body parts and rhyming words:
   deer-ear
   pail-nail
   sack-back
   go-toe
   gum-thumb
   put-foot
   bye-eye
   deck-neck
   see-knee
   bear-hair
   fin-chin
   band-hand
   peek-cheek
   farm-arm
   feel-heel
   
4. When your child is able to do this, turn it around. Point to your knee and your child will say a rhyming word such as bee or me!

When your child rhymes body parts, play this game:

1. Say, "I'm going to say a word and you'll tell me as many rhyming words as you can. I say bee." Your child then says words such as "he, she, we three, free, or agree."
2. Choose one-syllable words that are easy to rhyme with such as had, rat, man, fall, ten, red, big, fill, hop, dog, bug and sun. All of these have multiple words that rhyme.