This paper focuses on the connection between nursery rhymes and the development of phonological awareness in preschool children. The first part is dedicated to theoretical knowledge related to early speech-language development, phonological awareness and nursery rhymes, while the second part is research. Phonological awareness is often investigated in the context of speech-language development in early childhood. For the development of phonological awareness, the ability to divide words into smaller units - syllables, recognize rhymes and divide words into phonemes is important. It has been proven that nursery rhymes are full of incentives that enable children to develop these abilities spontaneously through play. Nursery rhymes are children’s verses, mostly of anonymous origin, that exist in every language and are transmitted orally. They have the characteristics of games in which the child actively participates, adopting the native language and culture. Research has shown that the use of nursery rhymes encourages the development of phonological awareness, which is one of the basic prerequisites for reading abilities in further stages of cognitive development. The main goal of this thesis is to examine the perception of pre-school teachers and students of Early and Pre-School Education about the role of nursery rhymes in children's speech and language development and their familiarity with key concepts, professional literature and educational materials. For the purposes of this study, a questionnaire was created, which the participants accessed by a link. The results indicate a relatively high familiarity of the participants with the terms phonological awareness and nursery rhymes. Most of them use nursery rhymes in their daily work, but they are aware of the need for a more intensive use of these verses and songs in order to encourage the proper speech and language development of children. Some of the participants see the need for a more intensive didactic training during their studies and through professional training for employed educators. Collections of nursery rhymes are not equally accessible to all respondents so they share materials with each other.