4 year old DS can't rhyme.

[Amanderrr]

My DS3 is 4.6 and he can't rhyme.

He just doesn't seem to understand what "sounds the same" means. Every day now for about three weeks I've done a few minutes of rhyming exercises with him but he's just not getting it.

I'll ask "Can you think of a word that rhymes with/sounds like cat?" and he'll say "pigeon!" or something equally as unexpected.

I've tried saying "Cat, mat, sat, rrr... complete the word" and sometimes he'll answer "rat." but usually I almost have to complete the word for him to know the answer. He's clearly not able to do it.

He sings lots of nursery rhymes and knows most of the words to current RnB songs, thanks to DS2 having Kiss FM on most of the day, so I don't know why he's not picking this up as generally the ends of sentences in the songs he sings rhyme.

Is this unusual at this age?

I asked his friend, who at 3.11 is more than half a year younger than DS3, to find a work that rhymed with cat and she answered rat straight away. I'm not worried, just a bit baffled.

I wouldn't even be baffled. If he were your fourth child, you wouldn't even know whether or not he could rhyme. It's the same old story: different children do things at different rates, and it is not worth thinking about for a single second.

don't worry not all 4 year olds can
just keep reading to him, and keep it light and pleasurable
when he starts school the phonics programme will help reinforce lots about sound, including breaking down language
another good thing to do imo is some drumming, to music and words so he gets an appreciation of rhythm and meter
had some good world music sessions with 4 year olds and percussion
but keep it all fun, part of play not 'exercises'

I intend to home ed him OracleOfDelphinium so it's bothering me a little that I'm not able to get the concept of rhyming across to him.

I'm not worried that he may have SENs or that he's dreadfully behind his peers academically. If I'm honest, a little part of me is doubting my teaching abilities as this will be the first of my children that I've attempted HEing. I suppose I'm just hoping that someone will tell me that it's perfectly normal for a boy of four and a half not to have the poetic abilities of Keats.

If he knows lots of nursery rhymes try saying/singing them without the rhyming word

Twinkle, twinkle little
How I wonder what you
etc

& see if he can fill in the blanks - if he can't then I think 'something' is a bit unusual

but not understanding the word 'rhyme' is not a big thing at 4

iyswim

Ninah, your suggestion of using music and instruments sounds brilliant.

He's always singing and humming away to himself so I think he'd enjoy playing with some percussion instruments. Perhaps we could also try to make up our own songs too.

sorry to assume!
katy mac's suggestion is great
exploring with words and sounds in any way you can
some of the rhyming stories are good, too - gruffalo author, that's not my mum etc
at school we have a robot, Metal Mike, who 'chops' words up into sound talk, that really appealed to some of the boys
(not that we tried Ode to a Grecian Urn lol)

I dont think my ds could do this until he was 5 and into Reception - I wouldn't worry. He suddennly got it around the end of the first term when he was just gone 5 and is brilliant at it now. Also doing fine with his reading as far as I can tell. I think 4 is still early?

He's able to fill in the missing words with rhymes he knows so there's nothing wrong with his memory. It really is the concept of which words sound the same that he's struggling with. I've tried giving him options. For example "Does horse or rice sound like mice?" Sometimes he gets it right and sometimes he gets it wrong so he's just guessing.

Like I said, I'm not too worried. It was just brought to the fore when his younger friend was making up her own songs and immediately rhymed rat with cat.

I've just had a look for local music groups and there's a Rhyme Time session at my local library on Thursday mornings so I'm going to take him along to that. I'm sure he'll enjoy it and it'll give us ideas to try at home.

Thank you for all your ideas and help. (smile)

So he knows the words - he just doesn't understand (at the moment) what a 'rhyme' is or sounds like

How long ago did you realise this? How often do you sing songs?

TBH I think he just hasn't learnt it yet