Rhyming and Vocabulary: Effects of Lexical Restructuring

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effect of lexical restructuring on children's phonological awareness. Thirty-three preschool children were assessed for vocabulary skills and ability to detect rhyme. Results supported the lexical restructuring theory because expressive vocabulary abilities were correlated with rhyming ability. However, children's ability to detect rhyme was not affected by neighborhood density (i.e., words from dense neighborhoods contain many similar sounding neighbors such as cat, bat, etc.). These findings provide important information for those who serve children at risk for reading failure.