Abstract Phonological awareness is one of the most important predictors of reading. However, there is still controversy concerning its dimensionality. This study evaluated the dimensionality of phonological awareness among Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children. A total of 212 children performed six phonological awareness tasks in the last year of kindergarten. Of those children, 177 performed the same tasks when they were in the first grade. The phonological awareness measures differed in both their cognitive demand (detection, blending, segmentation, and elision) and the phonological unit involved (rhyme, syllable, and phoneme). Confirmatory factor analyzes were employed to test several models of phonological awareness dimensionality. The results indicated that the best model was an oblique model of phonological units with two correlated latent factors: phonemic awareness and supraphonemic awareness. This model presented the best fit to the data both in kindergarten and in the first grade. In addition, supraphonemic awareness in the kindergarten predicted phoneme awareness in the first grade; however, phonemic awareness in the kindergarten did not predict supraphonemic awareness in the first grade. These results are compatible with phonological awareness developing from larger phonological units (e.g., syllables) to small phonological units (e.g., phonemes) and the reciprocal relationship between phonological awareness and reading. From a theoretical point of view, these results also suggest that phonological awareness is a one-dimensional construct that can be evaluated by tests employing different phonological units (e.g., syllables, rhymes, phonemes).

O estudo objetivou avaliar os efeitos de dois métodos de educação em saúde sobre a aprendizagem e o desenvolvimento cognitivo de 105 crianças que vivem em área endêmica para helmintoses. As crianças, com idade entre 6 e 10 anos, foram randomicamente distribuídas em três grupos: (1) submetido à Pedagogia Não-Diretiva (PND), (2) submetido à Pedagogia Diretiva (PD) e (3) Controle, submetido à atividades recreativas. Os três grupos apresentaram progresso em relação aos conceitos gerais (comuns a todas as helmintoses), não havendo diferença significativa entre eles. Quanto aos conceitos específicos sobre helmintoses (transmissão, prevenção e sintomas), os resultados apontam avanços nos grupos PND e PD. Os testes psicológicos não revelaram mudanças no nível cognitivo das crianças estudadas. O estudo constata a eficiência das duas intervenções educacionais aplicadas. Os resultados sinalizam para a necessidade de se aliar os métodos tradicionais de ensino aos não-diretivos nas propostas de educação em saúde.

This study evaluated the effect of two health education methods on learning and cognitive development of 105 children residents in a helminthic endemic area. The children, between 6 and 10 years of age, were randomly distributed into the following three groups: (1) Non-Directive Pedagogy (NDP) method, (2) Directive Pedagogy (DP) method and (3) Control Group that received only no-relevant recreational activities. All three groups showed progress regarding general concepts (those common to all helminthic infection) with no significant difference between them. Concerning helminthiasis specific concepts (transmission, prevention and symptoms) results point to improvements in both NDP and DP groups. Cognitive testing did not reveal changes in the cognitive level of children studied. This research indicates the efficiency of both health education interventions applied. Results show the necessity of allying traditional education methods to non-directive ones during a health education intervention.

O presente estudo investigou a natureza das tarefas de nomeação seriada rápida, considerando três hipóteses sobre o que elas representariam: (1) medidas da recuperação de códigos fonológicos da memória de longo prazo; (2) medidas da velocidade de processamento geral; e (3) medidas de processos relacionados ao reconhecimento de padrões visuais. Participaram da pesquisa 174 crianças brasileiras cursando o 5º ano do Ensino Fundamental em escolas particulares. Análises fatoriais confirmatórias indicaram que nenhuma das três hipóteses se mostrou consistente com os dados. Porém, em um modelo de regressão estrutural construído para avaliar a contribuição desses fatores para a nomeação seriada rápida, o único que contribuiu significativamente foi o fator 'velocidade de processamento geral'.

The present study aimed to investigate the nature of rapid automatized naming tasks, considering three hypotheses about what they represent: (1) measures of retrieval of phonological codes from a long-term store; (2) measures of general processing speed; and (3) measures of visual pattern recognition processes. The participants were 174 children from the 5th grade of Brazilian private schools. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that none of the hypotheses were consistent with the data. However, in a structural regression model the factor 'general processing speed' was the only one that contributed significantly to rapid automatized naming.