Awareness of Rhyme in Preschoo Children with Specific Language Impairment and Without Language Difficulties

Abstract

Significance of developing the rhyme recognition and production skills is displayed by defining the rhyming skills as one of the activities that develops a sense of the word-sound structures. It is a natural activity of most preschool children, but also a common difficulty for the children with language impairment. Rhyme is a skill associated with the development of reading and spelling that contributes to their later development regardless of the relationship with the phonemic awareness. The aim of the current study was to compare the rhyming skills in children with and without language impairment. The sample consisted of 120 subjects who were examined by using a subtest of the rhyme recognition and production test. The obtained results indicated significant differences on the tasks of rhyme identification and production in the children with a specific language impairment (SLI) and the children with the typical language development (TLD). The SLI children had significantly poorer performance on all the tasks, when compared to the TLD children. It was concluded that, in the developmental period, the awareness of rhyme can be seen as a prerequisite for the occurrence of smaller phonological units such as phonemic awareness, and as an indicator of the later development of reading skills. Special attention should be given to them in monitoring the development of the children with language difficulties.