Contemporary research has demonstrated that metalinguistic skills are fundamental for the acquisition and development of reading and writing skills. With the purpose of verifying if children who had not attended school before preschool III, with no knowledge of reading and spelling, presented phonological awareness when entering formal schooling and if the presence of this skill favored reading and writing acquisition, 167 children from both sexes with an average age of 5 years and 8 months old, similar social-economical level, took part in this study which was carried out in three stages. In the first stage (beginning of preschool III), the phonological awareness skill was evaluated by means of the Phonological Awareness Test. In the second and third stages (beginning and ending of the first grade of the elementary school), the children were reassessed in their phonological awareness and evaluated in oral reading and writing with dictation of words and pseudowords. The results showed a positive correlation between phonological awareness and ulterior performance in reading as well as in writing.
phonological awareness; reading; writing; development
