Rhymes with Preschool Language! Grammatical Accuracy and "Hickory Dickory Dock"

Children start to learn grammar rules very early : including when they are toddlers, when they are preschoolers, and when they are in kindergarten. So, we can use rhymes to train a child's inner "grammar meter" - distinguishing between correct and not-so-correct sentences.

Some of the grammar forms we can focus on are at this early age are : regular past tense (e.g. -ed past tense words), irregular past tense (e.g. fell, wrote, woke), and subject-verb agreement (is vs. are)

So how do you practice these skills at home with your child?

Simple! Let's take "Hickory Dickory Dock" for an example.

Say the incorrect grammatical sentence and the right grammatical sentence (the one in rhyme) side by side. And see if your child can pick out the incorrect sentence.

"Is it the mouse runned up the clock or the mouse ran up the clock?" (this works on irregular past tense)

OR

"Is it the mouse jumped up or the mouse jumping up?" (this works on regular past tense)

OR

"Do we say the numbers is on the clock or the numbers are on the clock?" (this is an extension of the rhyme, but works on subject-verb agreement).

With practice, your child will be able to figure out right vs. wrong production, and eventually even self correct when they say something that sounds off.

If you want to practice this, and 30+ other language skills on "Hickory Dickory Dock", check out Smarter Speech's "Hickory Dickory Dock" worksheet on TpT! Happy Talking!

Disclaimer : Smarter Speech is a pediatric speech therapy / speech-language pathology practice for toddlers and children providing in-home and teletherapy services in and around Mountain View, CA, and Los Gatos, CA. Smarter Speech Blog aims to provide free speech and language tips for parents educators and therapists. However, this post is not providing speech-language pathology services. This is general information, not speech -language pathology or speech therapy. This article does not assume or create a client – SLP relationship. The author is not liable for any losses or damages due to actions or failure to act based on the content in this article. If you need assistance with a child’s speech or language needs, please contact a speech-language pathologist in your area.