The present article attempts to give an account of some results of a research which was carried out with a group of thirteen children from three to five years old in an institution of infant education which takes care of children with primary malnutrition. One of the objectives of the study was to verify which reading and writing relations and practices are being developed between this children group and their teacher at pre-school. The data we obtained corroborate the studies which point to the necessity of revising the assumptions of the educational policy that lower class children bring about learning problems to the teaching institution, due to retardation in the linguistic and cognitive development, which results from the absence of reading and writing practices in their socio-cultural universe.
Malnutrition; Reading and writing practices; Pre-school; School failure