Nursery rhymes and songs are far more than silly activities created to pass time. Nestled inside most childhood songs and rhymes are the building blocks of reading called phonemes, the smallest units of sound capable of changing meaning. For example, replacing the sound of the letter "b" with the sound of the letter "c" placed before the letters "a" and "t" significantly changes the meaning of the word. Children and older learners who are taught with phonemic awareness activities grow to be skilled readers.
Rhymes featuring alliteration, the repetition of beginning consonant sounds, are especially effective building blocks for strength in both reading speed and comprehension. For example, Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
For early childhood students who are forming basic reading skills, chanting or singing games will have students playing while learning. A well-know song such as "Old McDonald" can be modified for a phonemic awareness lesson. A teacher begins by singing the song traditionally until it is time to name the animal. The name of the animal is then broken into phonemic sounds for the children to blend. "Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. And on that farm he had a c-ou." The children blend the sounds to form the word "cow," the teacher accepts the suggestion and then moves on with the song. "Oh! A cow! E-I-E-I-O. With a m-OO m-OO here." The children blend the word "moo," and so on. Games such as this one that model onomatopoeia also boost a student's reading awareness. This game can be modified and used to call roll each morning. A student must listen for his name broken into phonemic parts and respond to the roll call at the appropriate time.
Older students who want to increase comprehension and reading speed and who have obtained basic phonemic awareness can utilize brain flexibility games. At first glance, speed games seem unrelated to literacy skills but are actually focusing on such tasks as verbal fluency and information processing. Quick paced matching, rhyming and memory games exercise parts of the brain responsible for speed, processing, memory and flexibility. Frequently accessing such areas of the brain is imperative for increasing reading abilities such as speed.
There are many theories and strategies that help to exercise literacy skills, one of which is frequent practice. Oral reading in which a child both reads and is read to is a basic yet valuable exercise. When a parent and child alternate reading from the same story, fluency, comprehension and speed are practiced. As the child listens to the story, she follows along with her reading partner and reviews material upon completion. Integrating reading into common life situations, a theory known as authentic learning, also emphasizes speed. Conversing about the words on a breakfast cereal box and playing "I Spy" with words rather than objects are enticing games for young readers working on speed or fluency.