c e p s Journal | V ol.11 | N
o
1 | Y ear 2021 115
doi: 10.26529/cepsj.685
Rhyming in the Context of the Phonological Awareness 
of Pre-School Children 
Soňa Grofčíková*
1
 and Monika Máčajová
2
• Rhyming is one of the basic skills associated with phonological aware -
ness. This paper aims to introduce theoretical starting points and the 
results of research into children’s rhyming in the context of phonological 
awareness. The text explains theoretical circumstances pertaining to the 
theme and defines key concepts. The main part of the paper includes 
the results of the research of pre-school children in Slovakia. There were 
866 respondents (children) of 4 to 7 years of age. The subject of the re -
search was the rhyming skills of children, which was tested in three in -
dependent areas: completing the rhyme in a nursery-rhyme, awareness 
of rhymes, and the production of rhymes.
 Keywords: rhyming, rhyme, phonological awareness, nursery-rhyme, 
rhyme awareness, rhyme production 
1 *Corresponding Author. Faculty of Education, Constantine the Philosopher University Nitra, 
Slovakia; sgrofcikova@ukf.sk. 
2 Faculty of Education, Constantine the Philosopher University Nitra, Slovakia.

rhyming in the context of the phonological awareness of pre-school children 116
Rima v kontekstu fonološke ozaveščenosti predšolskih 
otrok
Soňa Grofčíková in Monika Máčajová
• Rimanje je ena izmed osnovnih veščin fonološkega zavedanja. V pri- Rimanje je ena izmed osnovnih veščin fonološkega zavedanja. V pri -
spevku so predstavljena teoretična izhodišča in izsledki raziskav o ri -
manju otrok v kontekstu fonološkega zavedanja. V nadaljevanju so po -
dana teoretična dejstva v povezavi z navedeno temo in opredeljeni njeni 
ključni termini. Osrednji del prispevka je namenjen izsledkom raziskave 
predšolskih otrok na Slovaškem, v kateri je sodelovalo 866 otrok v sta -
rosti od 4 do 7 let. Predmet raziskave so bile veščine rimanja pri otrocih, 
preverjene na treh neodvisnih področjih: dokončanje rime v otroški pe -
smi, zavedanje rime in rimanje.
 Ključne besede: rimanje, rima, fonološko zavedanje, otroška pesem, 
zavedanje rime, rimanje

c e p s Journal | V ol.11 | N
o
1 | Y ear 2021 117
Introduction
The initial teaching of reading as well as the preceding preparation of 
children for reading have long been primarily associated with the development 
of sight perception and focused on the mutual harmonising of eye movements 
with the movement of the hand. When a child was failing in the acquisition of 
reading and writing, the reason was sought specifically in the area of the process -
ing of visual information; this was supported by many research studies in read -
ing, which were connected with a relatively intensive interest in sight-perception 
or sight-spatial processes in reading. However, research into language teaching 
began to indicate that problems with reading and writing largely result from the 
shortcomings in processing not visual but acoustic information. Recently, theo -
retical and empirical findings have shown that phonological factors are involved 
in the process of mentally representing written words (Ehri, 1992 in Wimmer 
et al., 1994). There have been growing doubts that we read primarily with sight, 
especially in connection with the growing knowledge regarding the importance 
of phonological skills in reading. Many studies have shown that the awareness of 
the phonological structure of spoken speech, distinguishing phonological units 
(words, syllables, morphemes and, especially, phonemes), including the ability 
to work effectively with them at the level of operational memory, is, from the 
aspect of learning to read, much more important, if not even decisive (Adams, 
1990; McBride-Chang, 1995; Mann & Foy, 2007; Torgesen, 2002). 
Theoretical background
Each of the elements of literacy is unique; talking, listening, and paying 
attention are expected to occur without any specific interventions. However, 
reading and writing are activities based on experience, relying on the child’s ca -
pabilities (hear, see, say, and store words) and on specific activities encouraging 
the skills of visual and auditory discrimination, physical maturity, particularly 
of fine motor control, underpinned by a desire to communicate (Featherstone, 
2017). Therefore, language literacy is one of the most important competences in 
life, which predicts later development of critical and creative thinking. Rhyme 
awareness, the ability of children to become aware of and produce rhymes are 
the essential abilities developed at the level of pre-primary and the beginning 
of primary education of children. One of the starting points and arguments for 
their development is the fact that rhyme awareness may be a significant help in 
the development of phonological awareness in case of some beginning readers. 
Performance in the rhyming tasks is a predictor of the later success in reading 

rhyming in the context of the phonological awareness of pre-school children 118
(Catts et al., 2001; Culatta et al., 2007). The essence lies in the fact that the iden -
tification of rhyme requires the child to hear sounds within words, which gives 
the child a basic idea that the word is divided into sound parts. The awareness 
of syllables and rhymes is developed prior to literacy, but the awareness of the 
smallest elements of sound symbolised by letters (phonemes) is changed with 
the orthographical transparency of language. It is necessary to work on skills 
such as letter recognition, as well as sound and phonological awareness. Re -
search results demonstrate the importance of phonological awareness for ongo -
ing literacy development.
Furthermore, the importance of working in a structured way to develop 
phonological awareness in children at risk of having future reading and writing 
difficulties is underscored (Andersson et al., 2019). A strong causal link exists 
between rhyming skills and reading. Children with weak phonological skills 
and decreased sensitivity to rhythm are at risk of dyslexia; therefore, the exer -
cises improving rhyme awareness in language (based on music, poetry) may 
make reading development easier (Goswami, 2015). Also, research findings 
(Ozernov-Palchik et al., 2018) suggest a connection among rhythm perception, 
phonological awareness, and letter-sound knowledge (a significant precursor of 
reading); the authors determined that ‘the association between rhythm percep -
tion and letter-sound knowledge is mediated through phonological awareness’ 
(p. 354). 
Phonological awareness is a term that is frequently substituted by pho -
nemic awareness. Phonological awareness denotes the conscious ability to dif -
ferentiate and manipulate phonological units bigger than individual phonemes 
(syllables and rhymes), while phonemic awareness is associated only with the 
smallest units: the phonemes (Ehri et al., 2001; Hogan et al., 2005; Moats, 2000; 
Reading & Deuren, 2007). Phonological awareness is understood as a general 
concept of the awareness of sound units, either words, syllables, onsets, and 
rimes or phonemes, which play a crucial role in this process (Anthony & Fran -
cis, 2005; Grofčíková & Máčajová, 2017). Phonological awareness is the ability to 
pay attention to the sound structure of words, to divide and manipulate sounds. 
Children learn the sounds and their combinations that are present in their lan -
guages and thus form phonological representations for real words. Reading ac -
quisition is predicted by the quality of these representations (Goswami, 2015; 
McBride-Chang, 1995). Nagy and Anderson (1995) ask whether in the case of the 
youngest children’ s representations of words involve phonemic units at all. In the 
beginning, words may be represented from the point of view of bigger units, an -
alysed into phonemes only when the discrimination of phonemes is necessary, 
that is, in the case of the child’s growing vocabulary. Adams (1990) distinguished 

c e p s Journal | V ol.11 | N
o
1 | Y ear 2021 119
four skills that form the basis of phonological awareness. They include rhym -
ing, division of words into syllables, isolating individual sounds (acoustic analy -
sis), joining syllables and sounds (acoustic synthesis), and manipulating sounds 
(phoneme awareness). As a skill related to phonological awareness, rhyming re -
quires considering that similar sounding words differ in their onset and are the 
same in their final part. Phoneme awareness is thus acquired by the child in the 
following order (Cséfalvay & Lechta, 2013): 
1. the rhyming of words begins with rhyme perception, then gradually be -
coming aware of the fact that, for example, the word ‘cat’ rhymes with 
the word ‘hat’; 
2. division of words into syllables; 
3. identification of the first syllable in the word (the word ‘water’ begins 
with the syllable /wa/);
4. identification of the last syllable in the word (the word ‘computer’ ends 
with the syllable /ter/);
5. identification of the first sound in the word (the word ‘cat’ begins with 
/k/);
6. identification of the last sound in the word (the word ‘hat’ ends with /t/); 
7. identification of the sounds in a word with CVC form (e.g., ‘cat’), CCVC 
(e.g., ‘skin’) and other longer words, to compose words of sounds (trou -
sers, rhinoceros, and so on), segmenting the words into individual 
phonemes;
8. manipulation and play with sounds in words and exchanges of sounds, 
deletion of concrete phonemes in the word. 
Four operations are required from the child in the process of phonologi -
cal awareness. The first is the acoustic perception of certain speech segments. 
Subsequent to this is its retention in memory sufficiently long for the required 
operation to be carried out. Then the performance of the given operation (ma -
nipulation, leaving out, identification, etc. of speech segment) and the result 
of the operation must be communicated, most often orally (McBride-Chang, 
1995). The development of the concept of phonemes and joining the letters with 
sounds depends on the ability to listen to the sounds of words and analyse the 
sounds of individual components. It is thus not surprising that training the 
awareness of sound units bigger than phonemes accelerates the process of read -
ing. The development of phonological awareness in the pre-school age occurs 
when it is specifically trained. A striking development of phonological aware -
ness then takes place when the beginning reader begins to be formally educated 
and trained in the manipulation with sounds and letters, as well as in their 

rhyming in the context of the phonological awareness of pre-school children 120
correspondence. The skill to search for words that rhyme is an indicator of the 
feeling for language, of the ability to perceive the sound structure of words and 
to become aware of the identity, and, at the same time, the onomatopoeic na -
ture of the last syllable (Máčajová et al., 2017). 
Both speech and nonlinguistic rhythm processing require accurate pro -
cessing of the temporal structure in acoustic stimuli. Temporal patterns 
in speech contain important cues to phonological units such as pho -
nemes, syllables, and stresses. These collective cues help language learn -
ers to segment syllables and words from the acoustic stream and develop 
a phonological template (Ozernov-Palchik et al., 2018, p. 364). 
Phonological awareness is a crucial skill for reading acquisition. There -
fore, performing on PA tasks is considered to be a strong predictor of later 
reading success or impairment. 
Rhyme is characterised by the acoustic agreement of sounds (vowels and 
consonants), words or a group of words at the end of lines, or half-lines. To be 
able to rhyme requires understanding the concept of rhyming and having the 
abilities that are key components of the phonological awareness (as discussed 
above) specifically how to segment words, delete sounds, substitute sounds, and 
join sounds into words. The child must know which part of the word is impor -
tant in the rhyme. A child who does not have a sufficient feeling for rhyme often 
concentrates on the first or last sound of the word, or rather on the meaning 
of the word, than on the entire rime. Such children, for example, say that ‘hat’ 
and ‘coat’ rhyme (rime is the second half of the word h-at, c-oat). They can also 
have difficulty with multi-syllable words. Nonsense words are acceptable for 
the creation of rhymes, because they point to the ability to create a rhyme, not 
to knowing vocabulary (Adams et al., 1998),  which was also confirmed in the 
results of our testing via our Test of Phonological and Phonematic Awareness 
(Máčajová, 2013). Such neologisms were not considered to be wrong. The basic 
instrument for the development of the ability of children to work with rhymes 
is nursery-rhymes, which are a frequently used genre aimed at children, with 
appealing aesthetics in rhythm, rhyme, intonation, instruction, entertainment, 
and fantasy. As for their extent, they are short verse formations, rhythmical 
texts in which sound instrumentation prevails. It is the connection of the text 
with a concrete situation or characterising a situation by its naming. The theory 
understands nursery-rhymes as the characteristic talking of children or adults 
to animals, plants, or various effects and phenomena in nature. In the nursery 
rhyme, the rhythmic qualities of an utterance are actualised with a certain aim, 

c e p s Journal | V ol.11 | N
o
1 | Y ear 2021 121
which is associated with the content of the text and has a form of play; This 
is one of the reasons that nursery-rhymes gradually became part of children’s 
play. In verbal play, children learn how to distinguish verbal models, and then 
use this knowledge in reading and building their vocabulary (Žilka, 2011). 
Rhythm is a regular repeating of the same or similar phenomena in their 
temporal or spatial succession. It is the regular repeating of an acoustic element, 
which is associated with the phonetic and phonological system of the language. 
The repeating can be carried out through the alternation of long and short syl -
lables, through the same number of syllables or accents in the verse, which is 
the basic unit of poetic rhythm, usually one line of a poetic text. It is character -
ised by its sound structure which is based either on the regular distribution of 
stressed and unstressed syllables or on the regular alternation of long and short 
syllables. This sound organisation is repeated in several verses (Žilka, 2011). 
The subject of many scholarly discussions is the question of whether rhyme 
awareness in the early age of the child is significant for the subsequent reading 
acquisition. Various research studies have proposed several hypotheses: 
1.  rhyme awareness relates to the ability to read, 
2.  rhyme awareness influences the acquired level of reading (performance), 
3.  rhyme awareness leads to the development of phonemic awareness. 
This paper presents just one part of a larger study whose aim was to 
create, for the purposes of pedagogical diagnostics, the Test for the Evaluation 
of Phonological and Phonemic Awareness (Máčajová, 2013) for pre-school age 
children, which consists of five main areas, each of which is focused on testing 
various skills within sub-areas:
•	 rhyme (described below; there are 15 tested items); 
•	 analysis and synthesis (word-to-syllable analysis, word-to-sound 
analysis, synthesis of syllables into words, synthesis of sounds into 
words; there are 40 tested items); 
•	 omission (sound omitting, syllable omitting: there are 10 tested items); 
•	 auditory isolation (isolation of the initial sound, isolation of the initial 
syllable, creation of the word with particular sound; there are 15 tested 
items); 
•	 auditory differentiation and localisation (differentiation of words with 
visual support (pictures), differentiation of words without visual su -
pport, localisation of changes within the sentence, localisation of chan -
ges within the word, differentiation of nonsense words; there are 25 te -
sted items).  
In this paper, we have focused on the detection of the following abilities 

rhyming in the context of the phonological awareness of pre-school children 122
in the work with rhymes:
1. ability of children to complete rhyme in a known child’s nursery-rhyme;
2. ability to become aware of rhyme, i.e., to determine whether two words 
rhyme;
3. ability to produce (create) rhymes.
Drawing on the above, we were interested in obtaining answers for the 
following research questions: What is the level of children, in all age categories, 
in the fields completing the rhyme in nursery-rhymes, rhyme awareness, pro -
duction of rhymes?
Method
The research included 28 kindergartens, which were selected by random 
choice of a western Slovak region. The children tested were from four to seven 
years of age. In total, there were 866 respondents. Children with speech disor -
ders and those with delayed schooling start were excluded from the testing. In 
total, we have evaluated 12,990 children’s utterances (15 tested items). 
Instruments and procedure
First, we tested the ability of the child to complete the rhyme in a well-
known child’s nursery-rhyme. Five familiar Slovak children’s nursery-rhymes 
were tested: ‘Ťap-ťap-ťapušky, išli mačky na hrušky’; ‘Osievame múčku, v sla -
menom klobúčku’; ‘Kujem, kujem podkovičku, koníkovi na nožičku’; ‘Adam 
v škole nesedel, abecedu nevedel’; Cip, cip, cipovička, mak, mak, makovička’ .
Second, we tested the ability of the child to become aware of the rhyme. 
The child’s task was to assess whether the two words, provided by the admin -
istrator, rhyme or do not rhyme. Five pairs of the following words were tested: 
‘čaj-daj’ , ‘auto-slnko’ , ‘huby-zuby’ , ‘myška-líška’ , and ‘komín-kominár’ . 
Third, the ability of the child to produce (create) rhymes was tested. The 
child’s task was to create a word rhyming with the stimulus word. The following 
five words were tested: ‘pes’ (dog), ‘dom’ (house), ‘deti’ (children), ‘opica’ (mon -
key), ‘hračka’ (toy). These test tasks were ordered as the last ones; in ascending 
order of difficulty. 
The obtained data were processed using the ANOVA (Analysis of 
Variance)statistical method. The test aimed to detect whether the differences 
in the means of individual groups, detected in the sample, were statistically 
significant, or merely accidental. ANOVA represents an enlargement of the 

c e p s Journal | V ol.11 | N
o
1 | Y ear 2021 123
two-sample t-test. If two groups are compared (the factor has just two levels), 
ANOVA shows the same result as the t-test (Tomšik, 2017). The LSD analysis 
(Fisher’ s Least Significant Difference Analysis) was used in the case of obtaining 
a significant result via the ANOVA analysis, which means that at least one of 
the tested groups differs from the remaining ones. The LSD analysis is the test 
of the smallest difference, used when the zero hypothesis is rejected as a con -
sequence of the results of the hypotheses tests. The LSD calculates the smallest 
difference between two means, which allows a direct comparison of two means 
from two independent groups (Tomšik, 2017). To measure the strength of the 
relationship between two continuous (interval) accidental values, we used the 
Pearson correlation coefficient. The value r moves from 0 to +/- 1. The values 
close to 0 signify no relation and the absolute values close to 1 the strong rela -
tion. There is a relation between the variables if all points [xi, yi] are on the 
straight line. It equals zero when the values are independent. Positive values 
signify that variables tend to change in the same direction, and the negative 
values in different directions (Tomšik, 2017).
Results 
Table 1 
Percentage success rate of children in rhyme testing
Variable
Age
Overall
4.0–4.5 4.6–5.0 5.1–5.5 5.6–6.0 6.1–6.5 6.6–7.0
Completing the rhyme 
in a nursery-rhyme
74.2% 80% 81% 86.8% 89.6% 90.8% 85%
Rhyme awareness 44.8% 56.4% 62.4% 67.6% 79.2% 80.8% 67%
Rhyme production 33.4% 38.2% 48.6% 55.6% 68.8% 72.8% 54%
In the first step of the result assessment, we were interested in determin -
ing whether there is a statistically significant difference between age categories 
in individual tested areas (completing the rhyme in nursery-rhymes, rhyme 
awareness, rhyme production). The ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) test was 
used for these purposes. Based on the significant results obtained through the 
ANOVA analysis, we decided to use the LSD test for a more detailed analysis 
(Fisher’s Least Significant Difference Analysis).

rhyming in the context of the phonological awareness of pre-school children 124
Table 2 
Statistical significance of differences in Completing the rhyme in nursery-rhymes
Variable
Age 
category
Age N M SD df F p
Completing 
the rhyme in a 
nursery-rhyme
1 4.0–4.5 83 3.71 1.264
5 11.340 .000
2 4.6–5.0 160 4.01 1.200
3 5.1–5.5 130 4.05 1.203
4 5.6–6.0 192 4.34 .919
5 6.1–6.5 204 4.49 .791
6 6.6–7.0 97 4.54 .817
Note.  p < .05 
The results in Table 2 show that in the tested area completing the rhyme 
in a nursery-rhyme, the results in all age categories were statistically significant, 
on the level of significance of .000. It may thus be stated that if differences 
found in individual age categories are assessed, they are statistically significant 
across the entire research sample. For the interpretation of the results and mak -
ing a conclusion about the research, of key importance are the results in Table 
1, which present the children’s success rate in the testing of rhymes. The results 
in the area completing the rhyme in nursery-rhymes demonstrate that children 
were improving by age (74.2%, 80%, 81%, 86.8%, 89.6%, 90,8%), meaning that 
the older the children were, the more successful they were, being able to better 
complete the rhyme in the tested nursery-rhymes. The comparison of statistical 
significance of the difference for the entire research sample showed that if the 
children at the ages of four to seven years are assessed in a complex way, the 
increase in their ability is highly evident and may be valid for the whole popula -
tion. To analyse the differences between the individual age categories in more 
detail, the LSD test was used; its results are shown in Table 3. 

c e p s Journal | V ol.11 | N
o
1 | Y ear 2021 125
Table 3 
Statistical significance in individual age categories in Completing the rhyme in 
nursery-rhymes
Variable
Age 
Category
Mean 
Difference 
(I-J)
SE P
Age 
Category
Mean 
Difference 
(I-J)
SE P
Completing 
the rhyme in 
a nursery-
rhyme
1
2 -.295* .138 .033
4
1 .633* .134 .000
3 -.343* .144 .017 2 .338* .109 .002
4 -.633* .134 .000 3 .290* .116 .013
5 -.774* .133 .000 5 -.142 .103 .169
6 -.825* .153 .000 6 -.192 .127 .131
2
1 .295* ,138 .033
5
1 .774* .133 .000
3 -.048 ,121 .694 2 .479* .108 .000
4 -.338* ,109 .002 3 .431* .115 .000
5 -.479* ,108 .000 4 .142 .103 .169
6 -.530* ,132 .000 6 -.051 .126 .687
3
1 .343* .144 .017
6
1 .825* .153 .000
2 .048 .121 .694 2 .530* .132 .000
4 -.290* .116 .013 3 .482* .137 .000
5 -.431* .115 .000 4 .192 .127 .131
6 -.482* .137 .000 5 .051 .126 .687
Note.  p < .05 
 
A more detailed look at the comparison of the statistical significance of 
the differences between age categories showed that there is no statistically signifi -
cant difference between the four age categories. They include the following: sec -
ond and third (age: 4.6–5.0 and 5.1–5.5), ( p < .694); fourth and fifth (age: 5.6–6.0 
and 6.1–6.5), ( p < .169); fifth and sixth (age: 6.1–6.5 and 6.6–7 .0), ( p < .687); fourth 
and sixth (age: 5.6–6.0 and 6.6–7.0), ( p < .131). Therefore, it can be stated that 
even though the ability of children to complete the rhyme in nursery rhymes 
improved, this increase is not statistically significant from the age of two to three, 
from the age of four to five, and from the age of five to six. The given ability thus 
develops continually for one year, without significant acceleration. The exception 
was recorded for the children at the age of 4.0 to 4.5 years, for which the results 
are statistically significant with regard to all age categories, also concerning the 
category 4.5–5.0. It may thus be stated that from 4.0 to 4.5 years of age, the ability 
to complete the rhyme to the nursery-rhyme develops the fastest.

rhyming in the context of the phonological awareness of pre-school children 126
Table 4 
Statistical significance of differences in rhyme awareness
Variable
Age 
Category
Age N M SD df F p
Rhyme 
Awareness
1 4.0–4.5 83 2.24 1.686
5 24.005 .000
2 4.6–5.0 160 2.82 1.722
3 5.1–5.5 130 3.12 1.565
4 5.6–6.0 192 3.38 1.551
5 6.1–6.5 204 3.97 1.362
6 6.6–7.0 97 4.03 1.131
Note.  p < .05 
The results in Table 4 show that with regard to the rhyme awareness 
tested area, the results in all age categories were found to be statistically signifi -
cant, on the level of .000. It may thus be stated that if the differences found in 
individual age categories are assessed, they are statistically significant across the 
entire research sample. For the interpretation of the results and making conclu -
sions, of the research of key importance are the results in Table 1, presenting 
children’s success in rhymes testing. The results in the area rhyme awareness 
clearly demonstrate that children were improving by age (44.8%, 56.4%, 62,4%. 
67,6%. 79.2%, 80.8%). The older the children, the more successful they were at 
being able to determine better whether two words rhyme. The comparison of 
statistical significance of the difference for the entire research sample clearly 
showed that if the children at the age of four to seven years are assessed in a 
complex way, the increase in their ability is highly evidenced and may be con -
sidered to be valid for the whole population. T o analyse the differences between 
the individual age categories in more detail, the LSD test was used; its results 
are shown in Table 5 below.

c e p s Journal | V ol.11 | N
o
1 | Y ear 2021 127
Table 5 
Statistical significance of differences in individual age categories in the area of 
rhyme awareness
Variable
Age 
Category
Mean 
Difference 
(I–J)
SE p
Age 
Category
Mean 
Difference 
(I–J)
SE p
Rhyme 
Awareness
1
2 -.578* .205 .005
4
1 1.139* .199 .000
3 -.882* .213 .000 2 .561* .162 .001
4 -1.139* .199 .000 3 .257 .172 .136
5 -1.725* .198 .000 5 -.585* .153 .000
6 -1.790* .227 .000 6 -.651* .189 .001
2
1 .578* .205 .005
5
1 1.725* .198 .000
3 -.304 .179 .090 2 1.147* .160 .000
4 -.561* .162 .001 3 .843* .170 .000
5 -1.147* .160 .000 4 .585* .153 .000
6 -1.212* .195 .000 6 -.065 .187 .727
3
1 .882* .213 .000
6
1 1.790* .227 .000
2 .304 .179 .090 2 1.212* .195 .000
4 -.257 .172 .136 3 .908* .204 .000
5 -.843* .170 .000 4 .651* .189 .001
6 -.908* .204 .000 5 .065 .187 .727
Note.  p < .05 
A more detailed look at the comparison of the statistical significance 
showed that there is no statistically significant difference between three age cat -
egories. They include the following: second and third (age: 4.6–5.0 and 5.1–5.5), 
(p < .090); third and fourth (age: 5.1–5.5 and 5.6–6.0), ( p < .136); fifth and sixth 
(age: 6.1–6.5 and 6.6–7 .0), ( p < .727). Therefore, it can be stated that even though 
the ability of children to become aware of rhyme improved, this increase is not 
statistically significant from 4.5 to 5.5 years, from five to six years, and from six 
to seven years of age. The given ability thus develops continually for one year, 
without significant acceleration. It was shown again that for children at the age 
of 4.0 to 4.5 years, the results are statistically significant and are different from 
all other age categories. It may be claimed that the ability to become aware of 
rhyme develops the fastest in the case of this age group.

rhyming in the context of the phonological awareness of pre-school children 128
Table 6 
Statistical significance of differences in the area of rhyme production
Variable
Age 
Category
Age N M SD df F P
Rhyme 
Production
1 4.0–4.5 83 1.66 1.684
5 25.381 .000
2 4.6–5.0 160 1.90 1.716
3 5.1–5.5 130 2.44 1.953
4 5.6–6.0 192 2.78 1.899
5 6.1–6.5 204 3.43 1.667
6 6.6–7.0 97 3.65 1.595
Note.  p < .05 
The results in Table 6 show that regarding rhyme production, the re -
sults in all age categories were found to be statistically significant, at the level 
of significance of .000. It may thus be stated that if the differences found in 
individual age categories are assessed, they are statistically significant across 
the entire research sample. For the interpretation of the results and making 
conclusions, of key importance are the results in Table 1, presenting children’s 
success in rhymes testing.  The results in the area of rhyme production clearly 
demonstrate that children were improving by age (33.4%, 38.2%, 48.6%, 55.6%, 
68.8%, 72.8%). The older the children, the more successful they were in rhyme 
production. The comparison of statistical significance of the difference for the 
entire research sample clearly showed that if the children at the age of four to 
seven are assessed in a complex way, the increase in their ability is highly evi -
dent and may be considered to be valid for the whole population. T o analyse the 
differences between the individual age categories in more detail, the LSD test 
was used. Its results are shown in Table 7. 

c e p s Journal | V ol.11 | N
o
1 | Y ear 2021 129
Table 7 
Statistical significance of differences in individual age categories in rhyme 
production
Variable
Age 
Category
Mean 
Difference 
(I–J)
SE p
Age 
Category
Mean 
Difference 
(I–J)
SE P
Rhyme 
Production
1
2 -.237 .239 .321
4
1 1.119* .232 .000
3 -.776* .248 .002 2 .881* .189 .000
4 -1.119* .232 .000 3 .343 .201 .088
5 -1.764* .230 .000 5 -.645* .178 .000
6 -1.987* .264 .000 6 -.868* .220 .000
2
1 .237 .239 .321
5
1 1.764* .230 .000
3 -.538* .209 .010 2 1.526* .187 .000
4 -.881* .189 .000 3 .988* .198 .000
5 -1.526* .187 .000 4 .645* .178 .000
6 -1.749* .228 .000 6 -.223 .218 .307
3
1 .776* .248 .002
6
1 1.987* .264 .000
2 .538* .209 .010 2 1.749* .228 .000
4 -.343 .201 .088 3 1.211* .237 .000
5 -.988* .198 .000 4 .868* .220 .000
6 -1.211* .237 .000 5 .223 .218 .307
Note.  p < .05 
A more detailed examination of the results showed that there is no sta -
tistically significant difference between three age categories: first and second 
(age: 4.0–4.5 and 4.6–5.0), ( p < .0321); third and fourth (age: 5.1–5.5 and 5.6–
6.0), (p <.088); fifth and sixth (age: 6.1–6.5 and 6.6–7.0), ( p < .307). Thus, it can 
be stated that even though the ability of children to create rhyme improved, 
this increase is not statistically significant from 4.0 to 5.5 years of age, from 5.0 
to 6.0, and from 6.0 to 7.0 years. The given ability thus develops continually for 
one year, without a significant acceleration.  
In the next step of the assessment of results, we attempted to determine 
whether there is a relation between the tested variables, specifically between the 
age and the individually tested areas (completing the rhyme of nursery-rhyme, 
rhyme awareness, rhyme production) as well as between the areas themselves. 
For these purposes, the Pearson Correlation test was used. The results are pre -
sented in Table 8.

rhyming in the context of the phonological awareness of pre-school children 130
Table 8 
Results of correlations between individual correlations
Age
Completing Rhyme 
in Nursery-Rhyme
Rhyme Awareness Rhyme Production
Age
r 1 .242** .343** .355**
p   .000 .000 .000
Completing Rhyme 
in Nursery-Rhyme
r   1 .422** .452**
p     .000 .000
Rhyme Awareness
r     1 .510**
p       .000
Rhyme Production
r       1
p        
Note.  p < .05, r – Correlation, ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level.
The results show a strong relationship between all the variables. There -
fore, the following conclusions may be stated: the correlation relation increases 
with the child’s age with regard to the tested areas. The older the child, the bet -
ter s/he is able to complete the rhyme of a nursery-rhyme, to become aware of 
the rhyme, and to produce it. With the increasing age, the ability of children to 
work with rhymes also becomes better. A very high level of correlation is also 
shown in the comparison of individually tested areas: to complete the rhyme in 
nursery-rhymes, to be aware of rhyme, and to produce it. These results show 
an even stronger relationship than in the comparison of the tested areas with 
age. One can thus claim that these three variables are in a very strong relation. 
The ability to complete the rhyme in a nursery-rhyme is a condition for rhyme 
awareness and the subsequent production of words which rhyme. The strongest 
correlation was found between rhyme awareness and rhyme production, which 
means that if the child is not aware of rhyme, s/he is not able to produce it. 
Discussion 
This study focused on testing children’s ability to complete a rhyming 
word in a familiar nursery rhyme, to identify a rhyme and, consequently, to create 
a rhyming word to stimulus words. The final results in individual areas showed 
that children were most successful in the task of completing rhyme in nursery 
rhymes, for which 85.65% of successful responses were observed. The second-
highest level of success (66.79%) was recorded in the task of becoming aware of 
rhyme. The least successful was children when producing rhymes (54.18%). 

c e p s Journal | V ol.11 | N
o
1 | Y ear 2021 131
When interpreting the results for the task of completing rhymes in 
nursery rhymes, verbal answers were assessed in detail. The results point to 
the conclusion that the highest number of non-traditional answers occurred in 
the nursery rhymes with the lowest percentage of success. At the same time, it 
can be concluded that the higher the percentage of the most frequent answers, 
the fewer new (non-traditional) answers occurred. Therefore, it can be con -
cluded that if children did not know the nursery rhyme, they needed to think 
about new rhyming words. The ability to complete rhyme in nursery rhymes 
improves with age, and the difference is statistically significant. Simultaneously, 
the development of this ability is continual and most rapid between the ages of 
4.0 to 4.5 years. The phonemic awareness development is emphasised in the age 
group of four to five years old, since some research studies have implied that 
children younger than four years do not tend to show this ability reliably (Nagy 
& Anderson, 1995). From the age of four years, phonemic awareness starts to 
develop through sensitivity to larger sound units, such as phrases and words, 
proceeding to smaller sound units, such as syllables and phonemes. All chil -
dren aged four to seven years should be able to pass the Test of Phonologic and 
Phonemic Awareness successfully by completing rhymes in nursery rhymes 
(Máčajová, 2013) in all tested nursery rhymes.  
Children’s ability to become aware of rhymes (i.e., to determine whether 
two words are rhyming) improves with age, and the difference is statistically 
significant. The development of this ability is continual, and it develops most 
rapidly between 4.0–4.5 years of age. Children were more successful when 
identifying two rhyming words in comparison with words which do not rhyme. 
Significant difficulties were displayed when determining a rhyme in the pair 
‘komín-kominár’ (42% success). The total success in this area (66.79%) indi -
cated that children manifested pronounced weaknesses in identifying rhymes 
of words that were similar in sound but different in meaning.  
Regarding rhyme production, meaning the ability to create a rhyming 
word to a stimulus word, it was concluded that it improves continually with the 
age of children and the difference is statistically significant. Relatively equiva -
lent results in rhyme production imply that this ability of children is equal in 
output, without any marked relationship to the character of the tested words. 
No significant difference was recorded when assessing the variability of answers 
either, because none of the words stimulated production of a significantly high -
er percentage of new, non-traditional rhymes.
Children are able to become aware of a rhyme much quicker and much 
sooner than of individual phonemes, which can be considered to be an adequate 
starting point for the activities with rhymes in the pre-school age. Rhythm and 

rhyming in the context of the phonological awareness of pre-school children 132
rhymes start to develop as the earliest phonological awareness skills. Rhythm 
is created by syllables, and if children can ‘clap’ the syllables of their names or 
other multisyllabic words, they can ‘attune’ themselves to the rhythm of the 
language. Dividing words into syllables is an essential skill in learning to read. 
The child usually starts to become aware of sound similarities at the end of 
words and can distinguish them. The understanding of the rhyming requires 
the knowledge of which part of the word is key in rhyming; thus, the teacher 
should train the distinction and production of rhymes. If the child can identify 
and produce rhyme models, such as ‘ring’ , ‘sing’ , ‘king’ , and ‘wing’ , s/he demon -
strates early phonemic awareness, because the child leaves out the first pho -
neme (onset) in the syllable and substitutes it with other ones. Although, in 
the beginning, the child is not aware of this process, a space is opened for the 
realisation that words consist of the sequences of simple sounds, which under -
scores the importance of rhyming activities in kindergarten (Ehri et al., 2001; 
Nagy & Anderson, 1995). Therefore, it is recommended that the development 
of rhyme awareness should begin with nursery rhymes that teach children to 
become aware of rhyme, followed by training rhyme awareness via determining 
correspondences between two mutually rhyming, or non-rhyming words, and, 
finally, asking children to produce rhymes themselves, specifically, by requiring 
them to create rhymes in response to stimulus words.
What kind of relationship there is between rhyme awareness, phono -
logical awareness, and reading remains an open issue. Some research studies 
(Dunst et al., 2011; Goswami, 2019; Kuppen & Bourke, 2017) claim that there 
is a close relation between rhyme awareness and reading. The findings provide 
support for ‘a relationship between young children’ s nursery rhyme abilities and 
their phonological and print-related skills, including emergent reading’ (Dunst 
et al., 2011, p. 1). Macmillan (2002) drew on the findings of some researchers 
who maintained that rhyme awareness is the cause of reading; she conducted 
a research in which she tried to detect sensitivity to rhyme, the ability to create 
rhyme, and, at the same time, the test of reading. The relation of both perfor -
mances was in the population, especially among beginning readers, very close. 
However, to create a causal relation from such findings was impossible. While 
rhyme awareness may be a good starting point for phonological awareness, it 
does not necessarily have to mean a better awareness of individual sounds. The 
training and development of rhyme awareness stimulate phonemic awareness, 
which has a favourable effect on reading performance. Rhyme training, how -
ever, does not influence phonematic awareness directly since its development 
occurs only during the targeted training. Rapid progression may be observed in 
the tasks aimed at the manipulation with sounds and letters (Macmillan, 2002). 

c e p s Journal | V ol.11 | N
o
1 | Y ear 2021 133
Jošt (2011) has tested the hypothesis that claimed that the training and develop -
ment of phoneme awareness stimulate phonemic awareness, and thus, in fact, 
are decisive in reading performance. The research has shown, however, that 
the training of rhymes does not have a direct effect on phonemic awareness. 
Anthony and Lonigan (2004) dealt with children at the age of four to seven 
years, searching for the relation between rhyme sensitivity and other forms of 
phonological awareness. In the case of younger children, no difference could be 
distinguished between rhyme sensitivity and phonemic, segmental, and global 
phonological awareness. However, in the case of older children, there was a 
difference between rhyme sensitivity and above-mentioned phonological skills. 
The result of this was that the sensitivity to rhyme is highly predictive for these 
phonological skills. Although rhyming is part of phonological awareness (An -
thony & Lonigan, 2004), it seems that it is not necessarily the simplest skill 
of phonological awareness to master. This means that the rhyming activities 
include identification and differentiation, in which two or three words rhyme 
with a chosen word or which one word of the three does not rhyme with the 
given word (rhyme oddity). Another relatively significant challenge is the ac -
tivity to produce rhymes. These tasks depend on the fact that words rhyme 
because they share a common ending sound, and these rhyme tasks represent 
an assessment of skills in the development of phonological awareness. The evi -
dence from some developmental and intervention samples shows that the com -
petence with the types of tasks for the rhyme completion, rhyme oddity, rhyme 
production, is formed, on average, at an older age than the ability to manipulate 
parts of compound words, syllables, and perhaps even some phoneme skills 
(Philips, Menchetti, & Lonigan, 2008). Exposing the child to nursery rhymes 
may help in drawing his/her attention to the sound structure of words, as well 
as to semantic structure. However, there are several recommendations. For ex -
ample, with regard to appropriate metalinguistic skills, it could be best to teach 
rhyming explicitly in the onset-rime context, not as an independent activity. 
Phonological awareness may be taught through the manipulation of words, syl -
lables, onset-rime, phonemes, and not exclusively or primarily through tradi -
tional rhyming activities. Wimmer, Landerl, and Schneider (1994) also deter -
mined a relationship between rhyme awareness and reading. The main finding 
was that it is a developmental change. Rhyme awareness was only slightly pre -
dictive for the performance of reading and spelling at the end of the first grade 
but reached a substantial, predictive meaning with the reading and spelling 
in the third and fourth grades (results from the structure of the German lan -
guage), which may be explained through the role it plays during fluent reading 
and a high level of orthographic skills. The authors assumed that the awareness 

rhyming in the context of the phonological awareness of pre-school children 134
of bigger phonological segments than rhymes affects the fluency of reading 
and orthographic spelling skills because they influence the ability of the child 
to create memory representations for written words. Memory representations 
have a function of distinguishing the units in reading, where they facilitate di -
rect access to pronunciation and meaning and ensure orthographically correct 
spelling (Perfetti, 2007). The acquisition of the predictive meaning of rhyme 
awareness is explained by its usefulness for the creation of mental representa -
tions of written words. Some scholars emphasised the importance of sensitiv -
ity to rhyme in the initial reading, while others underscored the sensitivity to 
phonemes. Anthony and Lonigan (2004) determined that the measurement of 
rhyme sensitivity (except for rhyme production) and sensitivity to phonemes 
were indicators of the same ability, which led them to the conclusion that ‘the 
effects of sensitivity to rhyme and phonemes are probably not unique in the sit -
uations in which words may be read analogically or through letter-sound corre -
spondence’ (p. 49) . The conceptualisation of phonological awareness provides 
a certain advantage of rhyme sensitivity in the case of reading through analogy 
and sensitivity to phonemes in the case of reading through letter-sound corre -
spondence. Both these phonological skills influence reading (Anthony & Fran -
cis, 2005;  Catts et al., 2001; Ehri et al., 2001, etc.). The above research identified 
rhyme awareness as a precursor to the development of literacy. Kuppen and 
Bourke (2017) determined that knowing nursery rhymes at the age of three was 
predictive to the reading of words at the age of six. Metanalyses also indicate a 
slightly predictive role of rhyme awareness in subsequent literacy development. 
Learning the spoken rhythmical nursery rhymes may thus support phonologi -
cal awareness. 
Conclusion
The importance of rhyme awareness is undeniable concerning phono -
logical awareness. The studies and research that both support and challenge the 
importance of rhyme awareness in connection with initial literacy are relatively 
numerous. Our testing of the pre-school age children with regard to phono -
logical and phonemic awareness was expected to point to empirical findings 
that help predict possible problems in the initial literacy and the importance of 
these activities in pre-primary education. We can state that the tested items on 
rhyming are possible to generalise on a population of pre-schoolers; these items 
were approved statistically and became a part of a large diagnostic instrument 
evaluating the level of phonological awareness. It was determined that children 
in the investigated age groups were able to complete rhymes in well-known 

c e p s Journal | V ol.11 | N
o
1 | Y ear 2021 135
nursery rhymes, able to become aware of rhyme and could produce rhymes. 
According to these tested items and possible poor results (under the norm), we 
can detect children who are at risk in initial instruction of reading and writing; 
they need special attention before entering the first year of primary school, and 
activities are oriented on teacher’s intervention in kindergarten. As mentioned 
above, the diagnostic instrument is focused not only on rhyme testing but also 
on following subtests. Other tested abilities in close connection to phonologi -
cal and phonemic awareness were analysis and synthesis at the level of words, 
syllables, and sounds (phonemes); omission of phonemes and syllables; isola -
tion of phonemes and syllables; word differentiation and localisation of changes 
in the sentences. We can conclude that phonological and phonemic awareness 
predict a child’s level of abilities to read and write. Therefore, it is necessary to 
continue identifying various language abilities related to phonological aware -
ness and research their part (proportion) in successful reading. This diagnostic 
test should be a valid and reliable instrument for a teacher to assess the level of 
phonological and phonemic awareness of pre-schoolers, and to detect children 
at risk in initial reading and writing. Teachers’ competences in developing chil -
dren’s early literacy are developed during undergraduate studies in pre-school 
and primary education study programmes. Courses are focused on the theory 
of language development and early literacy as well as training in methods and 
strategies for developing a child’s pre-reading and pre-writing skills.
Acknowledgement
The study was written as an outcome of the research project VEGA 
no.1/0637/16 The Development of the Diagnostic Instrument for the Assess -
ment of the Level of Phonemic Awareness of Pre-School Age Children.

rhyming in the context of the phonological awareness of pre-school children 136
References
Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read: Learning and thinking about print . MIT Press. 
Adams, M., Foorman, B., Lundberg, I., & Beeler, T. (1998). Phonemic awareness in young children. 13
th
 
edition. Brookers Publishing Co. 
Andersson, S., Sandberg, G., & Garpelin, A. (2019). To teach writing: Teachers’ perspectives on how 
to promote children’s writing development in the Swedish pre-school class. Nordic Journal of Literacy 
Research , 5(2), 23–38.
Anthony, J. L., & Lonigan, Ch. J. (2004) The nature of phonological awareness: Converging evidence 
from four studies of pre-school and early grade school children. Journal of Educational Psychology , 
96(1), 43–55. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.96.1.43
Anthony, J. L., & Francis, D. J. (2005). Development of phonological awareness. Current Directions in 
Psychological Science, 14 (5), 255–259.
Catts, H. W ., Fey, M. E., Zhang, X., & Tomblin, J. B. (2001). Estimating the Risk of Future Reading 
Difficulties in Kindergarten Children: A Research-Based Model and Its Clinical Implementation. 
Language, Speech, And Hearing Services in School , 32(1), 38–50. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-
1461(2001/004)
Cséfalvay, Z., Lechta, V . (2013). Diagnostika narušené komunikační schopnosti u dospělých [Diagnosis 
of impaired communication skills in adults]. Portál.
Culatta, B., Hall, K., Kovarsky, D., & Theadore, G. (2007). Contextualised approach to language 
and literacy (Project CALL). Communication Disorders Quarterly, 28 (4), 216–235. https://doi.
org/10.1177/1525740107311813
Dunst, C. J., Meter, D., & Hamby, D. W . (2011). Relationship between young children’s nursery rhyme 
experiences and knowledge and phonological and print-related abilities. CELLreview , 4(1), 1–12.
Ehri, L. C., Nunes, S. R., Willows, D. M., Schuster, B. V ., Y aghoub-Zadeh, Z., & Shanahan, T. (2001). 
Phonemic awareness instruction helps children learn to read: Evidence from the National Reading 
Panel’s meta-analysis. Reading Research Quarterly , 36(3), 250–287.
Featherstone, S. (2017). Making sense of neuroscience in the early years . Bloomsbury.
Grofčíková, S., & Máčajová, M. (2017). Abilities of phonological awareness in the context of cognitive 
development in pre-school age. Journal of Language and Cultural Education , 5(3), 46–56.  https://doi.
org/10.1515/jolace-2017-0027 
Goswami, U. (2015). Children’s cognitive development and learning . Cambridge Primary Review Trust, 
Pearson Education. 
Goswami, U. (2019). A neural oscillations perspective on phonological development and 
phonological processing in developmental dyslexia. Language and Linguistics Compass , 13(5), 1–21. 
https://doi.org/https://doi10.1111/lnc3.12328
Hogan, T. P ., Catts, H. W ., & Little, T. D. (2005). The Relationship Between Phonological Awareness 
and Reading: Implications for the Assessment of Phonological Awareness. Language, Speech, and 
Hearing Services in Schools , 36(4), 285–293. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2005/029)

c e p s Journal | V ol.11 | N
o
1 | Y ear 2021 137
Jošt, J. (2011). Čtení a dyslexie [Reading and dyslexia]. Grada Publishing. 
Kuppen, S. E. A., & Bourke, E. (2017). Rhythmic rhymes for boosting phonological awareness in 
socially disadvantaged children. Mind, Brain, And Education , 11(4), 181–189. https://onlinelibrary.
wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/mbe.12148
Máčajová, M. (2013). Habilitačná práca [Habilitation thesis]. PF UKF.  
Máčajová, M., Grofčíková, S., & Zajacová, Z. (2017). Fonologické uvedomovanie ako prekurzor vývinu 
gramotnosti [Phonological awareness as a precursor of literacy development]. UKF.
Mann, V . A., & Foy, J. G. (2007). Speech development patterns and phonological awareness in pre-
school children. Annals of Dyslexia , 57(1), 51–74. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23764526 
Macmillan, B. M. (2002). Rhyme and reading: A critical review of the research methodology. Journal 
of Research in Reading , 25(1), 4–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.00156
McBride-Chang, C. (1995). What is phonological awareness? Journal of Educational Psychology , 87(2), 
179–192. 
Moats, L. C. (2000). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Brookers Publishing Co. 
Nagy, W . E., & Anderson, R. C. (1995). Metalinguistic awareness and literacy acquisition in different 
languages . University of Illinois, College of Education. https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/
handle/2142/17594/ctrstreadtechrepv01995i00618_opt.pdf
Ozernov-Palchik, O., Wolf, M., & Patel, A. D. (2018). Relationships between early literacy and 
nonlinguistic rhythmic processes in kindergarteners. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 
167(2018), 354–368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.11.009
Perfetti, Ch. (2007). Reading ability: Lexical quality to comprehension. Scientific studies of Reading, 
11(4), 357–383. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888430701530730
Philips, B. M., Menchetti, J. C., & Lonigan, Ch. J. (2008). Successful phonological awareness 
instruction with pre-school children: Lessons from the classroom. Topics Early Childhood Special 
Education , 28(1), 3–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/0271121407313813
Reading, S., & Van Deuren, D. (2007). Phonemic awareness: When and how much to teach? Reading 
Research and Instruction , 46(3), 267–285. https://doi.org/10.1080/19388070709558471
Tomšik, R. (2017). Kvantitatívny výskum v pedagogických vedách: úvod do metodológie a štatistického 
spracovania [Quantitative research in educational sciences: introduction to methodology and 
statistical processing]. UKF.
Torgesen, J. K. (2002). The prevention of reading difficulties. Journal of School Psychology , 40(1), 7–26. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4405(01)00092-9
Wimmer, H., Landerl, K., & Schneider, W . (1994). The role of rhyme awareness in learning to read 
a regular orthography. British Journal of Developmental Psychology , 12(4), 469–484. https://doi.
org/10.1111/j.2044-835X.1994.tb00648.x
Žilka, T. (2011). Vademecum poetiky [Handbook of poetics] . UKF.

rhyming in the context of the phonological awareness of pre-school children 138
Biographical note
Soňa Grofčíková , PhD, is an assistant professor in the field of peda -
gogy at the Faculty of Education at Constantine the Philosopher University in 
Nitra, Slovakia. Her main areas of interest are preschool and primary educa -
tion, theory of education, theory of instruction and didactics, language devel -
opment and literacy. She is involved in European international projects focused 
on early childhood education.
Monika Máčajov á , PhD, is an associated professor in the field of ped -
agogy at the Faculty of Education at Constantine the Philosopher University in 
Nitra, Slovakia. Her main areas of research are preschool and primary educa -
tion, theory of instruction, didactics of reading and writing, literacy develop -
ment, creativity development.