PURPOSE: to check the knowledge of educators from a kindergarten unit of Belo Horizonte regarding the development of human communication and its disorders in children and their conceptions about the performance of speech therapy in these institutions. METHOD: the study was developed in three stages: Institutional Diagnosis; Data collection using an adapted form in order to characterize the knowledge of education professionals about the acquisition and development of human communication and its disturbances; Planning and accomplishment of workshops. The analysis of the relation between variables was carried through the Fisher Exact Test, considering the level of significance of 5% in the statistical. RESULTS: the majority of the professionals answered correctly the questions related to the use and understanding of the language by children and related to the attitudes adjusted for communication among adults and children. 66.7% answered correctly to the questions on language development. 17 workshops benefiting 172 students aged from 3 to 6 year old and 12 education professionals were carried out. CONCLUSIONS: education professionals do not have much knowledge regarding the acquisition and development of human communication and its disturbs. Education professionals know about the work performed by the Speech and Language Therapist, but they see it from a clinical and preventive perspective. The workshops enabled the discussion of the importance of developing prevention and health promotion in Speech and Language Therapy.
Public Health; Health Promotion; Communication; Child Rearing; Language Development
