Creation of rhymes as part of the development of phonemic awareness of preschool children

Abstract

The ability to comprehend the words that rhyme is an indicator of the sense for language, the ability to perceive the phoneme structure of words and awareness of the sounds of the last syllable. Rhyme awareness can significantly influence development of phonemic awareness in some initial readers. Rhyme identification requires child’s ability to hear sounds within the words. This ability helps to a child to acquire basic idea about the word and its sound segmentation. The paper deals with theoretical basis, key terms and research findings in rhyme production. It is focused on the research investigating children in preschool age in Slovakia. 866 children in age from four to seven years were tested in ability to produce rhymes to cue words. The paper is an output of national research project VEGA no. 1/0637/16 Development of a Diagnostic Tool to Assess the Level of Phonemic Awareness of Children in Preschool Age.