Why Do Young Kids Love Poems?

Our earliest interactions with language comes in the form of rhyming poetry. Of course, it is a misconception of sorts that poetry has to rhyme or that rhyming literature is conclusively poetry. However, consider nursery rhymes which inherently come in the form of either song or poem. This is where most of us start and most stick with us well into adulthood (even if the enjoyment of them does not). Equally, if you look at most popular kids fiction (bedtime stories especially), many of these feature a poetic feel due to the way they rhyme. When I think on why young kids love poems; I think it is in equal parts the fun positive associations and developmental curiosity.

Linguistic Growth

Words are hard! Not just knowing the meaning but the pronunciation, tone, inflection and volume are all complications when starting off. Poetry for most is our first foray into conquering these words and learning how to communicate. Being able to do so, allows young minds to express what they feel and think with us; what they find silly and funny.

Context

Something fun and rewarding when you are a child is guessing the right answer or what is going to happen next. Ok, some adults like this too. Maybe a little too much. However, the point is that poetry and specifically rhyme play as much of a part as the pictures in developing a sense of context. They notice patterns, similarities and this leads to anticipating words and learning how to analyse. For them, they get the high of feeling clever and deservedly so.

Fun

This is the most important reason. Young kids have poems that are silly and fun, they’re easy to love as they conjure hilarious images and sparks the imagination. They make a monotonous, slow task like reading joyful and amusing. It isn’t until later when this opinion shifts for some.

The Busy Papa

Also known as Aaron, The Busy Papa focuses on lifestyle, parenting and personal wellbeing content. He has two decades experience in creative writing (including several published poems) and strongly dislikes (though tolerates) tomatoes.