Hands down, I gravitate towards a children’s book that contains rhymes.   It’s fun to read a creative story with rhyme with our little ones.   Why do we enjoy this so much and why do our little ones “know” what is coming…?  Because there is science behind why our brains like and recognize words that rhyme.

Songwriter Pat Pattison writes, “Songs are made for ears, not eyes… (rhyming words) tell your ear where to go next, what’s connected to what, and when to stop,” he says. Rhyming plays a big part in the way storytelling has evolved in songwriting (Why Our Brains Love Songs that Rhyme).  He goes on to say, “Often a section (of a song) will close with a rhyme, saying, ‘I’m finished’.

We tend to like closure, a finish, to a song, story or movie.   Our brains like patterns and enjoy resolution (personification but true!).

Laurie L. Dove, in Why Do Rhymes Help People Remember Things? writes, “Like song lyrics, rhymes are so easily recalled that they stick with us. In fact, rhyming can be an important technique to help us remember things. It all has to do with mnemonics, tools that can be used to improve and assist human memory. The term “mnemonic” is derived from the Greek word for memory.”

Rhymes can help us remember things and they help us draw conclusions or make inferences too.   As a teacher, I recognized that these two reading skills help with comprehension.  For a few years, I volunteered with some Hispanic children at our sister church.  These kids are bilingual and “process” in both English and Spanish.  We worked on reading skills, and I often selected books with rhymes to use with our small groups.  I found that I could read two rhyming lines of a story, completely leave off the last word and just PAUSE ….. and the kids could predict what that next rhyming word would be!

And when I say “predict” what I’m actually meaning is that they would excitedly YELL the word that I omitted.  What I planned as a reading strategy, they thought was just a loud game.  Check!  😊

Here’s an example from Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat: 

‘Put me down!’ said the fish.
‘This is no fun at all!
Put me down!’ said the fish.
‘I do NOT wish to ____________!’

Kids are going to yell the word, FALL!  And they’re going to be very proud of themselves for figuring it out too.

Win, win, right?  What we think of as just being “fun” truly has some cognitive merit behind it, some real paths to understanding.  So, as we BOOK TIME WITH OUR KIDS, let’s have some fun with rhyming stories because:

Rhymes help us remember.

Rhyming is more than just fun!

Rhymes help us finish our thoughts, so

Use rhyme with your daughter or son!

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