Rhyming is an excellent way to teach specific bits of information in many fields of learning, but especially in math. Math is composed of unchanging facts that lend themselves to using rhyme as a memorization process. Rhyming in learning the times tables and other math information, is especially valuable, as these facts are immutable and once memorized, always available.
Young children respond to rhyming games, because learning in the guise of fun and play makes a brain impression more rapidly and effectively than non-play ways of teaching. Play-learning also takes the child’s mind off of the stress of being right or wrong, if that is an issue. Children who are playing a games, are thinking of the fun of the game – not the content they are absorbing.
Recent studies of young child brain development bears out the improved speed with which learning takes place with play. It can take fewer than 20 repetitions of a fact to “stick” in the young memory via play-learning; non-play learning might require one hundred or more repetitions to make the same impression. Even silly or nonsense rhymes are effective, as long as they are connected to real information, creating an anchor for the child.
When considering learning programs, those that are based on a rhyming format or include rhyming as part of the program, will produce the most favorable results.
