PANDEMIC IMPACT ON THE COGNITIVE-LINGUISTIC SKILLS OF 1ST AND 2ND GRADE BRAZILIAN SCHOOLCHILDREN

"The Covid-19 pandemic made discrepancies between the different educational realities more evident for schoolchildren in the beginning of literacy. Aim: to characterize the performance of cognitive- linguistic skills of students in early literacy phases during the pandemic. Forty-eight Brazilian schoolchildren participated in this preliminary study, distributed in GI, composed by eighteen schoolchildren for 1st grade and GII, composed by thirty schoolchildren for 2nd grade, submitted to the application of the Cognitive- Linguistic Skills Assessment Protocol for students in the initial stage of literacy. Results: students from GI and GII showed average performance for writing the name, sequential alphabet recognition, and visual memory of shape. The GI presented a refusal response for the subtests of word dictation, nonword dictation and picture dictation, word repetition and visual sequential memory of shapes and poor performance for alphabet recognition in random order and average performance for alphabet recognition in sequence. GII showed lower performance for the subtests of word dictation, nonword dictation, picture dictation and superior performance for alphabet recognition in random order, alphabet in sequence and visual sequential memory of shapes. Discussion: the appropriation of the letter- sound relationship mechanism raises questions, since it evidenced the difficulty of all students in cognitive-linguistic skills necessary for the full development of reading and writing in an alphabetic writing system such as Brazilian Portuguese. Conclusion: students in the 1st and 2nd grade showed lower performance in cognitive-linguistic skills important for learning reading and writing."