Teaching Rhyming Words To Special Need Children

Why teach about rhyming?

Developing a child's phonological awareness is an important part of developing a reader. Young children's ability to identify rhyme units is an important component of phonological awareness. Research shows that students benefit from direct instruction on rhyme recognition paired with fun activities that target this skill.



Body Name Game

How 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!

5. When your child rhymes body parts, play this game:

a. 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."

b. 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.

Read a Ton of Rhyming Books


In my opinion, introducing rhyming to children is best done by reading rhyming books. It exposes the kids to how rhymes sound in a meaningful, engaging manner. While reading such books to the kiddos, it’s easy to point out the rhyming words by saying, “I hear rhyming words! ‘Dog’ and ‘fog’ rhyme.” A simple extension would be to have the children come up with more words that rhyme with words in the book. Tomorrow I’ll share specific rhyming books that I enjoy reading with kids.

Songs and Finger Plays

Another wonderful way to introduce rhyming is through songs. Most kids love to sing, listen to, and dance along to music. With the youngest children, simple finger plays do the trick. They’re short, contain rhyming words, and involve the kids in the music. “Ring Around the Rosey” and “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” are favorites for a reason! As children get older (moving from toddlers to preschoolers), they still enjoy finger plays. The older children also enjoy longer songs to sing and dance to, and rhyming words are often a part of such songs.

Use Children’s Names

Children’s names are incredibly meaningful to them, making names an awesome teaching resource! Simple word plays with children’s names (and the names of those important to them) is another way of introducing rhyming concepts. Here are some ways to use names when introducing rhyming:

· Call kids by rhyming versions of their names —sam jam, Ram shyam , Super Cooper, etc.

· Insert children’s names into songs and poems — “The itsy-bitsy Riddhi climbed up the water spout . . .”

· Play goofy name games that involve rhymes — “If your name rhymes with Fairy, jump up and down. If your name rhymes with moon, turn around in a circle.”

· Sing some version of “The Name Game” with your children/students. A shorter, simpler version might be the best way to start with this.


Rhyming Basket

Objects are placed in a basket (one object for each child present), and the basket is passed around the circle. As each child gets the basket, I say a word (such as “fizzers”) and they pull out the object that rhymes (“scissors”). You can use any objects, because it doesn’t matter if the rhyming words are real words or nonsense words.


Erase a Rhyme

Draw a picture on a dry erase board, such as grass, sky, tree, flower, and sun. Say a word, such as tower, and have a child come up to erase what rhymes (flower); erase what rhymes with bee (tree); erase what rhymes with fun (sun). Continue until the whole picture is erased. Draw on a dry erase lap board before the children arrive, so that they don’t have to wait while you draw. Usually, after I’ve drawn a few, some of the children will volunteer to draw one for the next day.


Rhyming Rings

Hook words that rhyme together on a metal ring. Include a picture with the word. Children flip through the picture cards and say them into a PVC phone. Example: bag, tag, rag, wag. You can make these using clipart, or save time and purchase


I hope this blog will be helpful in teaching Rhyming words..(Posting some Rhyming story books , nursery rhymes and picture of activities..)

Cheers !!