The Power of Rhyme with Jacqueline Alexander

In this episode Toria talks to Jacqueline about nursery rhymes, their history and their importance for early learning today.  She also talks about the importance of phonological awareness and how this is different to phonics. 

As a teacher and researcher, Jacqueline talks about how her experience and research findings led her to develop and publish a book of rhymes for active learning today.

Jacqueline is a mum, teacher, researcher, author and member of the British Psychological Society.  Jacqueline’s social initiative led to the publication of Wizzy’s Words, a book of rhymes for sharing with infants from birth (and before) and promoting holistic language and child development.

To get in touch with Jacqueline email her at jaccqquie@gmail.com or visit www.wizzyswords.co.uk

A note from Jacqueline following the episode

Discerning phonological awareness from phonics is quite an enigma. Years ago, onset and rime (as discussed) would have been evident in classrooms and not just in the early years – with its links to spelling patterns

The syllabic and intra-syllabic boundaries are key – once a child has heard sounds, words, phrases, sentences i.e., language, they can say it then read it then write it (although my focus in on interactive sharing of rhymes via a book, I arranged for an audiobook of the book to be produced which is narrated – with a view to exposure to spoken word first)

Perhaps the biggest caveat to synthetic phonics is its deference to phonemes and graphemes at the expense of onset and rime…  the child exposed naturally to onset and rime from birth and before school of course also has the vocabulary it derives from and is ready for phonics - as we know therein lies the need for research 

Please feel free to contact Jacqueline with any questions with respect to this or other elements of their chat if it’s helpful.