Describes the recent revival of interest in the use of nursery rhymes as tools for the development of early phonic knowledge in children. Traces the historical evolution of nursery rhymes and their origins in the world of carnival. Questions whether such material is proper for teaching surface features of reading. (HB)

Investigates children's interest in the nursery rhyme genre. Notes that by talking about the rhymes, seeing an expert writer modeling the writing process and writing collaboratively with their teacher and with each other, the children wrote an "alternative" nursery rhyme book. Concludes the children began to see writing as a long term process but…

Investigates how the writing of some Year 6 children was influenced by exposure to the work of a contemporary author of children's literature and through reading a variety of fairy stories, tales and nursery rhymes. Concludes the children's awareness of story structure resulted in thought-provoking short stories with intertextual references. (PM)

Describes and critiques Maurice Sendak's newest book, "We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy," which includes nursery rhymes and pictures. Relates Sendak's book to the poetry of William Blake. Suggests possible readings for the book and approaches to teaching it. (HB)

Children listen, act out and recite nursery rhymes and thus learn about rhyming words, absorb the rhythm of English language, and begin to develop speech sound awareness in an interactive and fun way, which can further enhance reading achievement. Encouraging children to dramatize the rhymes leads to role plays which uses basic vocabulary sight…

Examines children's attraction to rhythm and rhyme of nursery rhymes and how these factors affect literacy. Discusses the connection between rhyme and reading and spelling acquisition. (HTH)

Investigates the development of rhythmic perception in Italian primary school children and its correlation to other subjects. Demonstrates a significant improvement in fourth graders' ability to discriminate duration and rhythms and indicates very few correlations with other types of school learning. Believes that the results emphasize the special…

This article describes the benefits of teaching nursery rhymes to students, particularly as it relates to language and sound patterns. Most cultures have parallel forms of nursery rhymes, limericks and simple poetry that children easily understand and enjoy. Yet teachers of young children report that many of their students do not know a single…

This report describes a program for improving reading skills of first graders. The targeted population consisted of a blue-collar community located in western Illinois. Many of the families had a language barrier. The problem of below grade level readers was documented through assessments and teacher observations. An examination of causes revealed…

Discusses the value of rhymes in developing children's concepts of story and pleasure in reading. (HOD)

Nine infants with Down's syndrome, seven nonhandicapped infants, and one severely handicapped infant were given the choice of listening to familiar nursery rhymes or to the same rhymes with each word reversed so that the rhythms, intonation and stress patterns were kept intact but the words became nonsense. (RH)

Describes an infant and toddler public library program called "Mother Goose Time." It is a language enrichment program that uses rhymes, songs, and books to lay the foundations of listening, learning, and literacy. Activities are planned according to the babies' motor skills--they are divided into two groups, "prewalkers" and "walkers". A list of…

Informed by knowledge of linguistics, research findings in the areas of monolingual and bilingual acquisition, dyslexia and speech therapy clinical practice, five factors are proposed to argue that the acquisition of English by young non-native learners can be enhanced by learning activities which take into account factors of developmental…

This study examined the effect(s) of rhyme on the recognition and recall of story events by 32 nursery school children at the University of Maine Child Study Center. Although subjects reported liking stories better when they were presented as nursery rhymes rather than prose passages, recognition of story events was significantly higher for prose…

Another in the series "Coleccion Mini-Libros" (Mini-Book Collection), the booklet contains the Mother Goose Rhymes translated into Spanish. Editorial Almaden (the publishing house) offers the booklet not only for the amusement and education of Spanish-speaking children but for use by parents and teachers who wish to stimulate an interest in…