Rhyme and alliteration in poems elicited from young children

Attempts were made to elicit poems from 133 children between the ages of 2 and 6. Seventy-eight of the children produced 606 poems between them. Sixty per cent of the poems contained phonological devices; 42% contained rhyme and 26% contained alliteration. There was no obvious age trend as regards the use of rhyme but the frequency of alliteration declined with age. There were no significant age differences as regards the relative frequency with which different phonemes were manipulated in rhyme and alliteration. The possible functions of such sound-based language play in language development are discussed, with special reference both to children's sound play in crib speech, and to the development of phonological awareness and its importance in learning to read.