The development of emerging literacy is crucial in the pre-school period. It is influenced by several different factors. Already in the pre-school period, the educator can identify risk factors that indicate the possibility of later development of specific learning difficulties and offer the child appropriate support and assistance.
Poorly acquired or unfamiliar pre-literacy skills often indicate specific learning difficulties, which are most evident when a child enters school. They are often accompanied by learning failure, which can negatively affect the child.
In the theoretical part of the thesis, I wrote about the development of pre-literacy skills in the preschool period. Various authors (Grginič, 2008, Končnik Goršič, Kavkler, 2002, Marjanovič Umek, 2010, Prgić, 2018 and others) find that they have a significant impact on children's literacy. Poorly developed pre-literacy skills, including: behavior, motor skills, language comprehension, verbal expression, metacognition, other cognitive activities, pre-literacy, pre-mathematics, etc., may indicate the later development of specific learning difficulties.
In the empirical part, I found out how many children show deviations in individual areas with the help of the IPDA questionnaire (Terreni, Tretti, et al., 2011), which can help educators to identify areas of pre-literacy skills in which a child may have problems in preschool. I wanted to find out whether there are differences between girls and boys in the field of pre-literacy skills and whether there are deviations between individual areas of pre-literacy skills. The sample included 65 children from Kranj kindergartens aged 5-6 years.
I found that 4 children (6.2%) have the highest chances of developing specific learning difficulties later. The results of the research also showed that there are no differences between girls and boys in the field of pre-literacy skills, but there are discrepancies between individual areas of pre-literacy skills.
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