There’s nothing like playing and having fun to help a child learn. This is how preschoolers do a lot of their learning, and there are countless ways that you can help them develop their reading and spelling skills, including many you probably had not even considered for their educative value!

Teaching Through Tongue Twisters (That’s a tongue twister in itself!)

Repeating tongue twisters helps preschoolers to hear the sounds that make up the words, which helps them recognize those words better. Learning to read, and spell are interconnected, and much more complex than we know. Repeating tongue twisters can help establish a sound foundation for spelling and reading. Tongue twisters have been found especially useful in helping kids with dyslexia, if started early enough. If you have dyslexics in your family (hereditary causes have been found connected to dyslexia), repeating the tongue twisters often, can help.

Plus, tongue twisters are fun to repeat with your kids! Peals of laughter – and lots of jumbled gobbledy gook words on your part can make for a fun mother-child experience.

Here are three commonly known tongue twisters. Use them with your child, and often.

She sells seashells by the seashore

The shells she sells are seashells I am sure

So if she sells seashells by the seashore

I am sure that the shells are sea shore shells.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

A peck of pickled peppers Peter piper picked

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

Betty Botter bought some butter

But she said the butter’s bitter

If I put it in my batter

It will make the batter bitter

But a bit of better butter

Will make my batter better

So she bought a bit of butter

Better than her bitter butter

And she put it in her batter

So ‘twas better Betty Botter

Bought a bit of better butter.

Quick Tongue Twisters

A big bug bit the little beetle, but the little beetle bit the big bug back.

Ask your child to say the words “Peggy Babcock” or “Friendly fleas and fire flies” 10 times without stopping.

Have fun!