Decoding skills at the end of Elementary School I of literate children during the critical period of the pandemic (2020 - 2021)

• Grant number: 25/03236-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2025
• End date: May 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Speech Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Aparecido José Couto Soares
• Grantee: Maria Eduarda Ferreira Santos
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Data from official agencies show that approximately 77% of elementary school students in Latin American and Caribbean schools had their academic skills affected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although there are documents from official agencies indicating learning losses, studies are needed to investigate the loss' extension during the critical period and its consequences for the schooling process. Thus, the purpose of this study is to characterize the word and non-word decoding skills of 5th grade elementary school students who were literate in 2020 - 2021. The study was approved by the Institution's Research Ethics Committee (CEP). The participants were 80 students from the 5th grade elementary school students from a municipal school. The software version of the Decoding Development Monitoring Protocol - PRADE was used. The assessment was carried out in a quiet room provided by the school. The software version of PRADE provides individual reports on each participant's performance and provides precise information on the time spent for decoding each stimulus, both words and non-words. From this, it is possible to extract and organize the data considering the target variables of this study, reading speed/rate, reading accuracy (correct words/non-words read per minute) and percentage of correct responses. All variables will be analyzed considering the length and type of stimulus (from monosyllabic to polysyllabic and word/non-word). Specific statistical tests will be used to verify the procedure performed, considering the variables studied.