Early Literacy Skills in Portuguese: a Crosscultural Research in Portugal and Brazil

<p></p><p>Abstract The main goal of this study was to assess the effects of an invented spelling training programme in the early stages of literacy of preschool Portuguese-speaking children. It encompassed 79 children from Portugal and Brazil. There were four equivalent groups (one experimental group and one control group in each country) and various control measures: knowledge of the alphabet, non-verbal intelligence and phonological awareness (syllabic and phonemic). A reading and spelling pre/post-test was carried out. During the intermediate period the experimental groups participated in invented spelling activities, and the control groups read children’s books. The results of the post-test have shown that the experimental groups reached higher levels in both reading and spelling as compared to the control groups. This evolution pattern was found in both countries, thus suggesting that invented spelling activities promote early literacy skills of preschool children speaking two Portuguese variants: European and Brazilian.</p><p>