It is widely acknowledged that fostering emergent literacy abilities, particularly phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and invented spelling, is a crucial aspect of preschool education. These practices are fundamental for the development of initial reading and writing skills and have been demonstrated to have a significant impact at the outset of formal education. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a socio-constructivist and naturalistic emergent literacy program that promoted the active involvement of preschool teachers. Participants included 88 preschool children from two schools in the Lisbon region (four classes), with 49 children allocated to the experimental group (emergent literacy program) and 39 to the control group (traditional literacy activities). The experimental program comprised 12 sessions, each beginning with contextualized activities (e.g., storytelling, singing a song, watching a short film, playing educational games) that provided a framework for subsequent learning. This was followed by activities addressing emergent literacy skills such as phonological awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary, early interaction with print, sentences structure, etc., culminating in an invented spelling task that encouraged exploration and experimentation with written language, with the minimum intervention from the adult. Each session was formally structured into three distinct phases, conducted in the same order: a large group activity, a small group activity, and an individual activity. The emergent literacy program focused on promoting a differentiated and dynamic approach, developing a collaborative and interactive learning environment in the classroom, and was incorporated into daily preschool activities. The control group literacy related activities consisted, mainly, in traditional tasks such as rhyming, singing songs, storytelling, and copying letters and words, in groups or individually, with low levels of collaboration or interaction between the children. The study results demonstrated statistically significant differences between the groups, with the experimental group showing substantial improvements in alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness, spelling, and reading compared to the control group. These findings suggest that emergent literacy programs incorporating socio-constructivist and naturalistic practices can be highly effective in developing fundamental skills in preschool children, better preparing them for future learning.

Keywords: Emergent literacy program, preschool education, literacy skills development, socio-constructivist approach.