Help your child improve auditory skills by teaching how to rhyme.
Knowing how to rhyme will help your child read word 'families' such as, 'let', 'met', 'pet', 'wet', and 'get'. Notice that rhyming words have the 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 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 his or her ears with a visual cue, (pointing). If you point to your nose and say, 'rose', the child 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 the child 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 'rose'.
3. Here's a list of body parts and rhyming words:
deer-ear go-toe bye-eye bear-hair peek-cheek
pail-nail gum-thumb deck-neck band-hand farm-arm
sack-back put-foot see-knee 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:
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 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 these have multiple words that rhyme.