My 6-yo was being assessed at school. The assessor said she was puzzled. He can read, but he couldn't make rhymes. Being able to make rhymes is normally a pre-requisite skill for reading (if I understood her correctly). He had taken ages to come up with basic rhyming words, and had sometimes suggested incorrect ones (although she had been suitably impressed when he had produced "earthquake" as a rhyme for "take"). I wondered if this was something to do with him processing her accent, as I was pretty sure he could do rhyming easy-peasy. So I tried him out on a few at home, and as I expected, he was able to come up quickly with 2 or 3 rhyming words for each word I suggested.
So I tried the same experiment on myself. I speak French (rustily). I tried naming a French word and then thinking of a rhyme. It is very difficult. Very difficult indeed. My conclusion is that rhyming in a language or accent other than your mother tongue or accent is difficult. Perhaps it's because in your tender years you didn't learn all those nursery rhymes and have your mother talk rhyming baby gibberish to you, carving out the necessary trails in the brain to make rhyming an almost instinctive skill.
Of course assessors don't get everything right. She told me "I told 6-yo that my family had come from Scotland as I thought he'd find that interesting". He told me "Everyone else got to watch a movie, but I had to go and do extra work for this lady because she is from Scotland and I am from Scotland. It wasn't fair. ".
hello iota, crikey, don't remember being tested on my rhyming at school otherwise I'd still be retaking my O-levels to this day. Must be a bit of a culture shock moving all the way over there, although not as much as moving a few hours drive up the MI, naturally. Do the yanks call you limeys or is that just reserved for us from south of the Tweed? anyway, thanks ever so much for the link and I will add you so that I can drop by again
ReplyDeleteSounds like an excellent theory to me. You know your child and his abilities better than anyone at the school does.
ReplyDeleteThey are very plain spoken up there in your neck of the woods. People teased me about my drawl. In my accent wash can rhyme with horse and creek can rhyme with tick. Really.
I wouldn't worry a bit about it.
Try living in the East End of London England, there they have something called rhyming slang for example
ReplyDeleteApple and Pears .........Stairs
Plates of Meat ..........Feet
Mince Pies ..............Eyes
Loaf of Bread ...........Head
and many more but I can't remember them off hand.
Quite mad these British ( my mother comes from Scotland and sometimes I have no idea what she said)
Interesting blog
Best Wishes
Blossom
Ah, the gift of tongues - there's no rhyme or reason in a country where the children were raised on Dr Seuss. They're so obsessive about standards and achievements, just be eccentric Scottish folk and roll your r's a lot. I said your r's, woman, not your fanny! (N.American usage)
ReplyDeleteCrikey - glad I'm not a school kid anymore! What happened to childhood innocence? Talk about pressure to perform. They'll have them doing SATs before they're out of nappies soon, the way things are going. Nice site - and thanks for the blogroll - I've added you to mine. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. Thanks, Rilly and Motheratlarge, for including me on your blogrolls. If you can remember how it made you feel the first time it happened to you, you'll know how thrilled I am (truly thrilly for me, Rilly).
ReplyDeleteI feel the need to set the record straight a bit here, in fairness to the school and the assessor. The assessment wasn't one of those national tests (plenty of those around, whichever continent you live on). It was genuinely a helpful input into the process of integrating 6-yo into his new environment. The assessor was puzzled rather than worried by his lack of rhyming abilty. It was all a positive process, not a judgmental one.
Now, I could do with some advice here, as a new blogger. If you want to reply to comments, how do you know the original commentators will check back? Should I have put the above in a new blog entry instead? Is there a clever way of being notified if someone comments on your comment? Or do I just have to get used to loose ends and unfinished conversations as part of the medium? Please comment (since if you don't, I will assume you haven't seen this, and will draw conclusions which might be erroneous).
Hi Iota. I should think he just couldn't be bothered!
ReplyDeleteOn the comments query: loose ends and unfinished conversations are the norm. I suppose if these went on too long the next entry would never get written. Although there is a way of being sent an email when you get a comment I believe.
Good stuff, will be back.
there's no real way of knowing if someone has read your reply to their comment iota, and it may well be they were a casual visitor who will not return. As Stay at home dad said, it's an imperfect medium, but if you want to spot comments on older posts then use the 'email comments 'function which is very useful
ReplyDeleteJust found your blogs - I dont know the mid west much - just the eastern seaboard as they say - particularly s.w. florida where I have family and friends. We visit there often and I love the southern life - though whether I could live so far inland as yourself remains to be seen. Will keep popping back if I may.
ReplyDeleteAll my family are from Suffolk and Norfolk with deep broad accents and they are very difficult to understand.People in US always think I am from Aus.
Think earthquake for take should have been highly regarded - bless him, it must be like a different languauge for a child. Looking forward to reading your past posts.
ReplyDeleteI've often wondered how the comments function works - it's one of the best bits, isn't it, when there's some comment banter - but goodness knows where I'd find the email alert button dear Rilly mentions. Thanks for raising this.
ReplyDeleteHi, iota, interesting to see all those overthepond differences.
ReplyDeleteIf you want email notification when someone has left a comment on your blog, go to Settings, click on Comments & at the bottom of the page there is 'Comments notification address'. Put in your address & bingo!
Hello and thank you for linking your Blog page with Purplecoo. Now what rhymes with Purplecoo . . .
ReplyDelete