Growing Bookworms – Tongue Twisters and a review of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

The benefits of Tongue Twisters for children (and adults too)What is a tongue twister?

A tongue twister is a sequence of words or sounds, usually of an alliterative kind, that are difficult to pronounce quickly and accurately.

An example of a tongue twister

One of the tongue twisters I grew up with is Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Pepper.

This is a video of the tongue twister:

Benefits of tongue twisters

Tongue twisters are fun and often results in lots of laughter, but they also have benefits for children.

Tongue twisters are a great way of introducing different consonant sounds to small children. They help pronunciation by teaching the brain how to form the necessary signals and organs of speech to make the required movements.

Regular recitation stimulates control of the muscles used for speech, ensuring clearer pronunciation of words with difficult syllables. Tongue twisters help children to decease instances of pauses in speech and reduce hesitation over pronunciation.

Listening to a parent or caregiver reciting tongue twisters helps to improve a child’s listening skills and comprehension of spoken English. Learning a tongue twister, promotes memorization which improves memory and cognitive skills.

Disadvantages of tongue twisters

The disadvantage of tongue twisters is that they take children a long time to master and thus a lot of patience from the teacher.

Did you learn tongue twisters as a child?

Did you teach tongue twisters to your children?

Let me know if the comments

My review of A Wrinkle in Time By Madeleine L’Engle

I was recommended this book by a friend of mine as I am unfamiliar with American children’s books and wanted to try a few.

I enjoyed this extraordinary science fantasy which involves three children with unique characteristics, a missing father, three fascinating good witches, time travel, different planets with unusual inhabitants and culminates in a battle for the preservation of creativity and difference against robotic sameness and loss of individuality represented by a disembodied brain called IT. I thought the author used an intriguing storyline and set of characters to support her central themes of rejection of difference and pressure to conform, the importance of love, not judging based on appearances, and that total understanding of everything in life is not possible.

Ultimately, I saw this as a book that celebrated individuality and uniqueness in people and reminded the reader about the importance of art, music, prose and poetry to society. The world of Camazotz, a world controlled by IT where sameness is glorified and exceptions to the accepted normal destroyed, is not portrayed in an appealing light. It is the main character, Meg Murray’s, individuality and difference that help save her father and brother and the greater world of humans from IT.

I liked the message of acceptance of difference in this book and think it will be a great read for all children. Reading about difference goes a long way towards acceptance.

About Robbie Cheadle

Award-winning, bestselling author, Robbie Cheadle, has published thirteen children’s book and three poetry books. Her work has also appeared in poetry and short story anthologies.

Robbie also has two novels published under the name of Roberta Eaton Cheadle and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.

The ten Sir Chocolate children’s picture books, co-authored by Robbie and Michael Cheadle, are written in sweet, short rhymes which are easy for young children to follow and are illustrated with pictures of delicious cakes and cake decorations. Each book also includes simple recipes or biscuit art directions which children can make under adult supervision.

Robbie’s blog includes recipes, fondant and cake artwork, poetry, and book reviews. https://robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com/