Poetry Helps Children Learn

If you were to describe some of the key elements in memorizing you might think of listening and concentration. Another way to say that would be awareness or focus. So awareness, focus and concentration are important in memorizing. Another important factor in memorizing is repetition. Educational poetry seems like a venue that fits this description very well.

Suppose you were looking at some flash cards with pictures and you or your child made up some rhymes or rhyming play activities to go along with the flash cards. Those activities would emphasize some of the same things you are trying to help your child learn with the flash cards. Suppose you also tried to stack or arrange the flash cards according to some of the patterns of the sounds like the beginning sound or the next sound.

You are also adding the sound to the visual image of the word. The rhyming helps children to recognize and learn the similarities and differences between words. The popular Hooked On Phonics series uses short rhyming words in simple stories to help children learn. Flash cards with pictures are included in the Hooked On Phonics program.

Having flash cards with pictures arranged in groups that start with the same letter or have the same vowel sound is like having a special learning kit. Children will learn the words in groups that have the same sound by hearing and seeing the similarities and differences. Repetition will be a key factor in this as the repetition is a basic part of the learning.

Rhyming is fun and the rhythm and repetition will help to make the learning fun. Sessions of playing with rhymes, rhythm and sounds will go by like playtime. Plenty of learning will be accomplished in these sessions but it will seem like fun or playing. Learning with rhymes and poetry is easier and it’s more fun. The whole experience seems like a natural process that helps the children to develop and learn.

Suppose you made up a story using rhyming words that end in et. Vet met pet. Vet let pet get net. Vet set net up. Vet lets pet get volleyball. Vet and pet play volleyball. This kind of story is simple, creative and fun and it emphasizes the short e sound in three letter words. Hearing it, seeing it and saying it would also help a child to learn the word volleyball and to associate it with a net. You and your child could make up rhyming stories like those and you could encourage your child to create them. Magnetic words or poetry kits could be used to create rhyming stories like those. Silly or nonsense stories would also work because that would help the children learn the words. The sessions are for learning words, not perfect stories and the learning would be like fun.

The rhymes and repetition in poetry help children to focus and concentrate on the words. The similarity of the sounds and the repetition help to keep the child’s attention on the words. The rhyming and repetition create a focus on the sounds of the words. Playing rhyming games with your children could be like an enhanced focus, concentration and memorizing educational session. Yet it is also playing with your children and having fun.

Children are also learning important reading skills with rhymes. The rhythms and rhymes help children to listen to and learn the differences between words, which is phonemic awareness. Grapheme awareness, akin to phonemic awareness is also learned with words with only one different letter. Another reading skill they are learning is phonological awareness which is the ability to recognize and work with the sounds in language.

Rhyming helps children to learn about words and language. The rhymes help children learn the sounds and word groups of the language. The repetition and predictability of the rhymes is engaging to children. Predicting the next word in a sequence helps them to be confident. Children learn sounds, language patterns and they learn language skills with rhymes.