COGNITION AND METALINGUISTIC AWARENESS AS SINE QUIBUS NON FOR SOLVING VERBAL PROBLEMS

The well-known problem concerning the relation between cognitive and language development (discussed particularly by Piaget and Vygotsky) can be applied to child's ability of solving verbal problems as well. Verbal problems, among other types, include riddles as language expressions and interesting games preferred by young children. This paper presents research of influence of meta-linguistic awareness and cognition on success in solving riddles as verbal problems. The participants were 150 children age four, five and six. Children were given task of conservation as indicator of their cognitive development and tasks for awareness of words as one of meta-linguistic abilities. Results show that the youngest participants are able to solve only riddles with associations. The oldest children manage to solve simple (concrete) metaphors. Research concluded that development of language and development of cognition are parallel.