Abstract:

All educational efforts in preschool education should focus on the highest possible degree of children’s readiness for school attendance. Generally, school maturity is assessed from a cognitive, social and emotional-social perspective. The paper focuses on the cognitive perspective, specifically on children’s language skills. Adequately developed language competences are essential for children’s personality development, are inseparable from other cognitive processes, crucial to obtaining information, and necessary in social communication. Proper development of language skills is considerably influenced by the kindergarten that the child regularly attends. The theoretical part of the paper defines key terminology, describes speech ontogeny, and suggests possible roles of kindergartens in the development of language competences in preschool children. The theoretical part is followed by a description of a qualitative research survey aimed at the assessment of the level and subsequent development of children’s language skills when they enter kindergarten, during the course of their study, and right before they enter elementary school. The research was based on an analysis of a diagnostic tool – children’s portfolios. The data were interpreted based on case studies; each case was analysed to formulate measures for further improvement of children’s language development.

Keywords:

Language skills, language development, school maturity, kindergarten, children’s portfolios.