Abstract:

Problem Statement:
A high percentage of pre-school children show signs of multiple weakening of functions important for school literacy development. The study focuses its attention on the area of identification and the possibility of affecting weakened functions in this target group.

Research Questions + Purpose of the Study:
What is the effectiveness of the Sindelarova intervention method (2006) used in children diagnosed with a risk of developing SLD? Which SLD predictors will be most affected by (specially) pedagogical intervention?
A research study is conducted to verify the need for screening for children at risk of developing SLD at pre-school age and to confirm the need for special educational support for these children, with the aim of reducing the percentage of children with difficulties in developing school literacy, i.e. children with later diagnosed specific learning disabilities.

Research Methods:
Research design is experimental, an approach in qualitative form using multiple-case study. Data Acquisition Methods: Initial Diagnostics (risk test for reading and writing disorders for early school-children, Švancarová, Kucharská, 2012), observation, interview (reflection of teachers to intervention procedures), Output Diagnostics. Intervention effect evaluation - test-re-tests (input vs. output diagnostics). Number of cases: 10 at this point, gradually increasing.

Findings:
Preliminary research results show that after applying the Sindelárová method (2006), the risk of developing SLD was reduced in 7 (out of 10) children with a risk of developing SLD that formed the research sample. The test method in the given research sample proved to reduce such difficulties especially at the auditory perception level and also partially at visual perception level.

Conclusions:
The research results show that early identification of children at risk of developing SLD (initial diagnosis, pre-test) and the subsequent initiation of comprehensive intervention for these children positively affect the alleviation of SLD predictors (output diagnostics, post-test). In the present study, 7 out of 10 children showed a positive effect. The development of auditory perception seems very effective. The study results point to the need for early diagnosis and the meaningfulness of initiating (specially) pedagogical intervention at pre-school age.

Keywords:

Pre-school child, risk of developing SLD, assessment of predictor SLD, effect of intervention.