Brenda Golembesky, a retired reading specialist from Mars, believes better childhood reading skills are in the cards.

Actually, they're in the card game she's developed to help young readers see patterns in words.

Called “Rime Request,” Golembesky's game combines elements of “Go Fish” with the cards' graphics to teach players to recognize language building blocks.

Golembesky, a Freeport Area High School graduate who did her undergraduate and master's degree at Clarion University before earning a doctorate in reading, has been a public school and private tutor in reading and the language arts for more than 35 years.

“I tutored from kindergarten to beginning college students,” Golembesky said. “I concentrated on helping kids with reading problems.”

Don't see the patterns

She believes the biggest problem young readers have is “decoding” the words on a page. They don't see the patterns in individual words.

For instance, while they may be able to read the word “gate,” they don't recognize the “ate” construction in the words “late” and “date.”

“Eighty percent of kids see the 'ate' rather easily, and 20% do not see what a skilled reader thinks is obvious,” she said. “Some don't transfer what they see from the familiar to the unfamiliar.”

Learning to recognize the “rime,” or the combination of vowels and consonants that follow the initial letter, is the purpose of the game.

Golembesky created a game with three decks of cards and 13 rimes in each deck, for a total of 39 common patterns of vowels and consonants: the rimes.

Ask for rime

If playing as individuals or two to three two-person teams, then players, after being dealt five cards each, take turns asking for a rime: for instance, the “ick” rime that appears in the word, “brick.” The other players, if they have an ick rime card, give it to the asking player. If no player has the requested rime card, the asking player draws a card from the remaining deck.

If the player gets at least one requested card, he gets another turn to ask for a rime.

When a three-rime set is collected, the player takes it out of play and is awarded a point. The winner at the end of the game is the player with the most points.

Golembesky said the game not only teaches rime recognition but good listening skills and strategy as players keep track of what rimes their opponents are seeking.

“I've used this game for years” during her teaching career, Golembesky said. After her retirement, she worked on ways to make it more interesting.

Locally made cards

For the latest edition of “Rime Request,” Golembesky got a former student who became an art major to draw the pictures on each of the cards. She had the cards created by a local manufacturer after extensive testing on the ink and paper used to make the cards, to ensure they were safe for children.

She said the cards are sold to teachers, tutors and parents who want to work on their children's reading skills outside of school.

“Elementary and middle school teachers have given it good reviews,” Golembesky said. The game is also an aid to English as Second Language teachers.

“The more automatic people are with recognizing a pattern, the speedier they can decode, and it gives them more time for comprehension,” she said. “They can move to a new word and jump-start the process going on to figure out the sentence or paragraph.

Playing this game helps reinforce this. If they know it is a game, they are happier to do it rather than using flash cards or worksheets,” she said.

“Rime Request” can be purchased at www.facebook.com/gametimephonics.