I am getting a master's in early childhood special ed, background is autism, and I'm doing a practicum in an integrated classroom: Two peers, seven kids on IEPs, three with more obvious/moderate autism, and few with mild autism or speech delays. Mixed ages from three years, to almost five or just turned five.

The school system is heavy on academics and the kids do Heggerty in a literacy large group. The thing is, from what I can see, pretty much none of the children understand the concept of rhyming- not even the peers. For the three year olds on the spectrum, the concept is way beyond them.

I am going to be leading a literacy small group next week and I'm considering doing a rhyming activity. What I'd *really* like to do is play a game with musical instruments where we decide if the sound we're hearing is the same or different from the preceding sound. I feel like this would be a good place to start for three year olds and just introducing the idea that some sounds sound the same. However, I don't think that will count here as "literacy."

Does anyone have any experience or success with teaching this concept to three year olds or children with special needs? Is this even achievable for the younger children in the group? The four and five year olds I think could get there, but I'm looking at 3s with language delays and wondering why the hell we're wasting their time on this...