Language, Cognition and Early Childhood Education: Contributions of Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience

Abstract The Early Childhood professionals often recommend that educators adopt practices that favor the development of oral language in curricula, but the same does not occur with written language, which although it is also present in children's daily lives, is mostly a postponed and controversial subject. These positions often ignore recent research from Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience that is devoted to the study of the relationships between cognitive and language development. These are studies that bring new explanations and open perspectives for the prevention of difficulties and the preparation of literacy. This theoretical article discusses some of these contributions aimed at understanding the cognitive processes and brain mechanisms present in the learning of reading and writing in alphabetical systems, as is the case of Brazilian Portuguese.