Rhyming

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Registered: 02-24-2004
Rhyming
4
Wed, 05-18-2005 - 10:11pm

Well, Nathan's class is finally doing some rhyming in class now. I've been trying to teach this to him....no luck. I know that autistics have a hard time with this rhyming thing...but nothing seems to be working. I've tried doing it with pictures, but that doesn't seem to help either. Is this something that he will just learn from repetition? Or with maturity? Should I just keep practicing with him, over and over again? Should I do the exact same words everytime? (he DOES learn from memory, but I'm afraid that this is how he will learn it, but not learn it by actually understanding it) Does that make sense???

I asked him today, what rhymes with chick? (this was part of his homework) He says, "Our chicks haven't hatched yet". (They're learning about chicks, and they're waiting for their eggs to hatch. A couple weeks ago it was caterpillars and butterflies.) Everytime I ask him (with no pictures), his response has nothing to do with the question. He gives me a look like he has no idea what "rhyme" means. When I do it with pictures....it's a guessing game. Surprisingly, he doesn't get mad though. He's such a perfectionist...but he doesn't seem to really care about learning how to rhyme. Normally he gets mad if he gets an answer wrong, or he can't write something perfect enough. But not in this case, it's almost like he's just oblivious to it.

Any ideas or experiences with this????

Michelle

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Registered: 03-26-2003
In reply to: mommy2nathan2004
Thu, 05-19-2005 - 9:53am

With our Nt kids they got the rhyming thing quick. Weston just didn't get it. SO, since he did get words and letters on paper(our other kids were more whole language learners and didn't really understand the letters and phonics thing) we made big cards w/ the --ick letters on them and showed him that by adding a card w/ ch- on it we made chick. Then we could take away the ch- and add s- to make sick. we could take away s- and add fl- and make flick and so on. This works really well for the words that are all spelled the same, but not so well (at least in kindergarten) for words that just sound the same. Later when he can read a bit better you can explain to him that some words sound alike but are spelled differently, and we always called them "rule breakers" (which Weston could identify with because he's such a big "rule" kid) and that made those easier to deal with for him.

DH plays a game w/ the kids when he's leaving for work. He says "see ya later, alligator!" they say "in awhile, crocodile!" he comes back w/ one that he's made up-- the rules are that it has to be some kind of animal and it has to rhyme. then the kid tries to come up w/ a new one. so DH might say, "not so soon, big baboon!" or "down the road, hoppy toad!" I know that now Weston (age 8 and in third grade) thinks about what he'll say to dad sometimes all day long because he wants to "win". Weston's big one this week was "you'd better have speed, centipede". This is huge progress for Weston though, he didn't really understand the game until this year. Dh has been playing this game w/ the older kids since they were in kindergarten as well.

hope this helps!

Betsy

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Registered: 03-26-2003
In reply to: mommy2nathan2004
Thu, 05-19-2005 - 1:00pm

I think your right. He either doesn't yet understand what "rhyme" means (which doesn't mean he can't do it. It is a hard vocab word to explain) or didn't process the question. The way I would go about it is to make it a game with him just in natural settings by modelling it for him.

You would be the model for him, so you say something like "goat rhymes with boat, goat-boat. Boy that is fun" then maybe some others. What ever is around that you are talking about. "Tree- bee. There is a bee in the tree. That rhymes too!" Even come up with silly ones. See if you can get him to do it too but in a nonchalant way. Just make it a game. Then slowly work on having him answer "what rhymes with" when he seems to get the idea of rhyming.

I don't know if he needs a more structured way of teaching it. But the point I am getting at is for you to model the skill first and provide the vocabulary for him then get him doing it with you. So if it works better for you to sit down with him and say "we are going to practice rhyming" then provide him with examples and do it that way perhaps. But I know with my Mike it works better if I sneak the skill in there as a game.

Renee

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Registered: 02-24-2004
In reply to: mommy2nathan2004
Thu, 05-19-2005 - 3:58pm

Thanks for your responses. Unfortunately, I've tried both of those already!!! Darn kid! I've tried the modeling, and making it into a game....even like Betsy suggested, but he won't participate. I did see a game awhile back. It was a bingo type game with rhyming words. I wonder if he would play this with Tyler and me?! We do the "see you later alligator....in awhile crocodile"----he likes to do this, but I don't think he understands the rhyming. Maybe I'll buy this game and see how he likes it. Thanks!

Michelle

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Registered: 12-24-2004
In reply to: mommy2nathan2004
Thu, 05-19-2005 - 8:57pm

Michelle,

If he needs visuals, then maybe the rhyming will click when he learns some phonics. Of course you will have to also link together syllables that look different but have the same sounds (e.g., cough and scoff, laugh and calf), and he will have to learn that syllables which look the same but don't have the same sound do not rhyme (e.g., cough and tough, good and food).

Another possible aide might be music. Many songs have rhyming lyrics. Try playing games where you make up songs and have him say the next logical word, which rhymes. An example would be:

I want to ride in a wagon
With my big green ______.

Cassian is actually an expert rhymer, but he is also hyperlexic, which probably means his brain is wired to do this sort of thing well. He can actually speak better in poetry than in prose. I believe, reading and music were important in helping him to learn this skill. I know, too, that Cassian's learning pattern is to go through a phase of memorizing many examples and finally applying the general rule correctly. Articulating the rule is more difficult for him, but he does generalize well. He probably read thousands of books with rhyming texts before he started making his own rhymes, but since he started reading very early and read obsessively, he ended up excelling in this skill.

Good luck and let us know if you find something that works.

Suzi