So today my 7 year old ASD daughter and I we were focusing on Limerick poetry. (we homeschool) And unfortunately my baby girl couldn't actually learn the lesson behind it (learning WHAT a limerick is) because she was focusing on WHY fuzzy wuzzy had no hair, and WHY cinderella kissed a snake, etc. and then creating her own storys and ideas on WHY this happened, instead of absorbing what I was telling her about the poem pattern of AABBA

Is she just not quite ready to get it? Or is there a special way I can teach her to make her understand? She normally gets patterns perfectly right off the bat (she always has even as a little one) and loves patterns, but this one is going over her head.

The way we homeschool is through k12 Virtual Academy, so it is a public school (done at home) and she has a teacher I can contact during the week if needed, but we do our school on weekends because our days off are Thursday and Friday (due to doc appts for both of us) so if I could find a way to figure this out for tomorrow that would be great!

Focus on and emphasize the end words that rhyme and work on the pattern, AABBA. Let her come up with rhyming pairs, write them down (autistic kids need the visual writing down), and then write down your own limerick. Clap your hands too in the rhythm of the poem as you recite a poem. "There once was a lady from Lair, Who owned a little brown bear..." -- so clap on once, lady, Lair, owned, little, and bear, and note the rhyme Lair and bear. Then talk about other words that rhyme with those two words.

I'm surprised you are doing limericks. 95% of them are dirty. We had a heck of a time in Libraryland coming up with some clean ones for a 4th grade that was studying different kinds of poetry.

Is this part of the curriculum?

Have you talked about rhyme schemes in other poetry? If not, that might help. Keep it short and easy and focus on the rhyming words.

Ill try that. But she can't grasp that in her music class either. She hasn't quite grasped the difference between the beat and the rhythm, they are the same thing to her.

Ill try this idea though. It may actually help her in both music and language arts.


Its not part of the curriculum, but the fuzzy wuzzy was a bear poem was in one of her fun reading activitys and we got into a whole discussion on the meaning of it lol.

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Originally Posted by jenniepepsi

she hasnt quite grasped the difference between the beat and the rhythm, they are the same thing to her.

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I agree with her that the beat and rhythm are the same thing. Aren't they?

Hehe. No the beat is the speed/tempo/pace. The metronome sets the beat.

Rhythm is confused with beat sometimes cause sometimes the rhythm IS the beat. But not always. The beat is always the same. But the rhythm can be 'la la lalala la la lalala'

But all ayla ever hears is the 'la la la la la la la la' which is the beat. She doesn't hear the 3 notes in one beat.

Does that make sense?

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Originally Posted by jenniepepsi

does that make sense?

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Yes. I play the piano and understand what you are saying.

Ooh OK then I could have used that lol. On sheet music, each bar is the beat, the rhythm is each note between those beats.

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Originally Posted by jenniepepsi

ooh ok then i could have used that lol. on sheet music, each bar is the beat, the rhythm is each note inbetween those beats.

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2/4 time (marching) and two notes to a measure, 3/4 time (waltzing) and three notes to a measure. The beat for each measure would be clap clap clap clap, but the rhythm for each measure might be rest clap rest clap or rest rest rest clap or clap rest rest rest.

Mmm I THINK so lol. I never learned to actually READ sheet music beyond the basics. I tried to learn in high school but all I ever did was learn the music by ear and pass my tests that way. But any written test on the sheets it was impossible lol. I think your right though that sounds right