A semântica e os jogos linguísticos como caminhos para o letramento na educação infantil: experiências com crianças de 3 a 4 anos em Fortaleza-CE

Abstract

Literacy in the early years of life represents a challenge for teachers, as it requires the promotion of playful experiences from early childhood, respecting the stages of child development and valuing play and interaction. In light of these arguments, it should be noted that this research sought to contribute to the process of building and expanding the vocabulary of children aged 3 to 4 years old, enrolled in a regular early childhood education classroom, through the development of intervention proposals using word games. The ability of young children to understand semantic fields was analyzed, verifying their ability to categorize words according to their characteristics or functions, even without having mastered reading skills. In this sense, the reflections of Soares (2020) were particularly relevant to our work, arguing that it is essential to understand the relationship between the terms literacy and literacy as overlapping processes, forming a whole, even though they are interdependent and coexist contemporaneously. Hachimoto (2024) also supported our research by considering the processes of literacy and literacy, especially in early childhood education, as the basis for the development of linguistic and cognitive skills, essential throughout school life, making it necessary to explore these concepts from the early years. The results of our work were obtained through the observation of children aged 3 to 4 years old in the school context. Data collection was carried out using observation tools, which consisted of word games presented to children in a playful context. Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that the use of word games is an effective strategy for promoting lexical development and literacy in early childhood education. The interventions showed that children aged 3 to 4 years can construct meanings, expand their vocabulary, and use language as a form of interaction and expression in playful and mediating contexts, reaffirming the importance of play as the axis of pedagogical practices focused on language.