Audição e linguagem na primeira infância: análise da eficácia de um curso para profissionais da educação infantil

Abstract

The school environment expands the child's social life, allowing the development of communicative skills in early childhood. The educator is a fundamental agent for the full development of children. Its performance has the potential both to favor communicative skills and to identify possible changes in their development. However, despite the origin of Speech Therapy being associated with Education, there is still little collaboration between these areas in early childhood education. Seeking to fill this gap, this dissertation aimed to analyze the effectiveness of a course on the development of communication in early childhood for training professionals in early childhood education. The longitudinal study was linked to a university extension course aimed at early childhood education professionals. Data collection was based on the application of virtual questionnaires that evaluated the teachers' knowledge about the development of communication in early childhood, decision-making, faced with simulated situations about the development of communication and the opinion about the course. The data collection period extended from September 2021 to December 2022 and consisted of three moments: (1) pre-course; (2) post-immediate - immediately after completion of the course; and (3) post-late - six months after completion of the course. In total, the responses of 91 professionals who participated in the three moments were considered. The casuistry was composed mostly of women, aged up to 39 years, and with specialization as the maximum level of schooling. The results obtained were divided into two articles. The first compared teachers' knowledge about the development of communication in early childhood in the three moments of the study. The comparison of the total number of correct items between the moments revealed that in the post-late period, the participants had more correct answers. In turn, the second article compared the decision-making of professionals in the face of simulated situations in the three moments. This comparison indicated significant differences between performance before and after the course. Thus, it was possible to conclude that the training of early childhood education professionals through a distance course is effective as a tool for expanding knowledge about the development of communication in early childhood.