Avaliação das habilidades metalinguísticas em crianças com queixas de dificuldades de aprendizagem.

Abstract

The academic development of the child with age to go to school has as an essential pillar the learning of both reading and writing. However, some children face a range of difficulties during the alphabetisation process. For the Cognitive Psychology these difficulties are, most of times, related to the deficit of metalinguistic skills, since these are predictors of the development of the reading and writing processes. Based on this premise we evaluated the level of metalinguistic skills (phonological awareness and visual memory) in children with complaints of learning difficulties, attended in a Specialized Assistance Centre from the city of Campina Grande-PB. Participated in the research 15 children aged from 7 to 10, divided into two groups: the first with reading stimulus and the second without it. The hypothesis assumed was that the children that were stimulated to reading in the familiar context would spend less time doing the phonological awareness and visual memory tasks, thus having higher scores in both kinds of activities. To prove or disprove this hypothesis, we used the socio-demographic data of the participants as well as a computerised test called Reading-Predictor Skills Test (THPL). It was verified that the group with the reading stimulus was better succeeded in the phonological awareness (with exception for the rhyme) and visual memory tests, being faster in the processing of information as well; these findings corroborate with the existent literature about the subject. Key words: learning difficulties, metalinguistic skills; phonological awareness; visual memory.