Abstract
The paper addresses one aspect of the development of language skills of preschool age children, specifically the development of what is known as phonological awareness. Indicators of phonological awareness include monitoring of what is known as syllable awareness, i.e. the child's capacity to consciously manipulate words at the level of syllables (e.g. to "play" with words by dividing them into syllables and such-like).
To show the relevance of interest in the development of syllable awareness the author provides an overview of the foreign literature that identifies phonological awareness as part of the set of linguistic and cognitive capacities determining the child's readiness for the development of initial reading and spelling. In the paper the author then focuses principally on the question of the evaluation of syllable awareness, and so the creation of exercises and procedures for identifying its development.
The author presents some newly created Czech measures of syllable awareness: recognition of syllables, putting syllables together and syllable blending She presents their form, method of administration and psychometric qualities. Using data from two different studies she shows performance profiles recorded in administration of these tests in Czech pre-school children of 3.5-5 years of age.