The páper addresses one aspect of the development of the linguistic capabilities ofthe pre-school child, specifically the development of what is known as phonological awareness. Indicators of phonological awarebess include the monitoring of what is known as syllable awareness, i.e. the chilďs capacity to consciously handle words on the level of syllables (e.g. to "play" with words by dividing them into syllables and suchlike). To show the relevance of interest in the development of syllable awareness the author provides an overview of the foreign literatuře that identifies phono-logical awareness as part of the set of linguistic and cognitive capacities deter-mining the chilďs readiness forthe development of initial reading and writing. In the paperthe authorthen focuses principally on the question of the evaluation of syllable awareness, and so the creation of exercises and procedures for identifying its development. The author presents some newly created Czech measures of sllable awareness: recognition of syl-lables, putting syllables together and syllable articulation. She presents their form, method of administration and psychometric qualities. Using data from two different studies she shows perform-ance profiles recorded in the administration of these tests on Czech pre-school children of 3.5 to 5 years of age.