In this diploma thesis, we focus on activities that promote the recognition of the first sound in words in the context of phonological awareness. The theoretical part is based on speech development, literacy, phonological awareness and family literacy. We found out that before all the activities, one child did not recognise a single sound and that the most difficult sounds for children were the consonants and the sound R. The most recognised sound was the sound A. We found that there were differences between boys and girls, with girls recognising on average 9 sounds and boys 7. There was also a big difference between 6 and 5 year old children, with the older children recognising 9 voices on average and the younger children 6. After the activity, every child identified at least one voice, and progress was made in the recognition of the R voice, with 5 children recognising it, and in the recognition of the alphabets, although only one child recognised all the alphabets. By comparison, we found out that children made more progress and recognised more voices after the activity than before all the activities. However, there was still a clear difference between boys and girls and between 6 and 5 year olds, with girls recognising 16 voices and boys 12 voices after the activity. On average, 6 year olds identified 16 voices after the activity, while 5 year olds identified 12 voices after the activity. We also found that the daily implementation of different language activities in kindergarten plays an important role in improving the quality of children's knowledge, and we made recommendations for preschool teachers.
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