Most of us grew up with Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat, Mother Goose rhymes or the Madeline books by Ludwig Bemelmans. We fondly remember the rhythm and rhyme that turned books from simply pretty pages with pictures into stories we begged to hear over and over and could recite by heart long before we could read. What is it about rhyming that grabs a toddler's attention? And is there any benefit to rhymes besides just the fun of reading them?

It's instinctually understood by adults that infants and toddlers enjoy rhymes. We rhyme almost without thinking ("Oochy coo, I see you!"). But surely babies don't understand at that point. Or do they?

"Even the youngest babies enjoy pat-a-cake and similar types of rhymes," says Dr. Jill Stamm, clinical associate professor of psychology in education at Arizona State University. "Part of this is the special connection being made with the adult."

As babies learn about their world, they seek out the familiar – the sing-song voices of those around them, the comfort of repetition in those voices. "Mom's voice while humming or singing a lullaby turns into something wonderful!" says Dr. Stamm, also the author of Bright from the Start: The Simple, Science-Backed Way to Nurture Your Child's Mind from Birth to Age 3 (Gotham, 2007). "Those songs we sing to babies have both rhyme and soothing rhythm."

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