Preschoolers’ cognitive-linguistic performance in different educational contexts

Abstract

Purpose: to investigate preschoolers’ cognitive-linguistic performance in different educational settings. Methods: thirty-nine children aged 4:0 to 5:11 years, enrolled in two private preschools from different Brazilian regions, were assessed with the Protocol for the Early Identification of Reading Problems, in the version adapted to preschool - which includes the following tests: alphabet knowledge; metaphonological skills; phonological working memory; rapid automatized naming; silent word reading; and hearing sentence comprehension based on figures. The groups were compared with the Mann-Whitney statistical test, and significant differences were set at p < 0.05. Results: as expected, data revealed different performances between preschoolers from the two schools. The worse results in both were related to rhyme production and rhyme identification, which reveals that phonological awareness is probably not being stimulated in these groups. Participants performed as expected or “under attention” in the other skills. Conclusion: the performances of preschoolers from both schools were identified and classified, revealing differences in cognitive-linguistic performances between the different educational settings. These results ratify the importance of a teaching approach that helps develop cognitive-linguistic skills, early in preschool.