TALK Language and literacy curriculum for pre-schoolers and school-age children: a programme to improve inclusion, scholastic achievement and social well-being

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Erasmus Plus KA2 Strategic Partnership for school education

“TALK Language and literacy curriculum for pre-schoolers and school-age children: a programme to improve inclusion, scholastic achievement and social well-being"

The Project “TALK” (2017-2019) involves 5 European organizations, active in the field of education and clinical services to support Children with Special Educational need.

Many studies have shown a relationship between early language development and literacy and learning skills and have specifically focused on the implementation of early intervention programmes and curricula. These programmes, however, have usually focused on particular, single skills or dimensions of language; no clear guidance has been offered to teachers on facilitating the transition from infant to primary school.

The project adopts an innovative cross-cultural approach. It aims to implement, and verify the efficacy of, an innovative curriculum/intervention programme (hereafter, TALK) for the early assessment of the child’s language skills in the preschool period. The motivation for these aims is that they will help to ease the transition to primary schools, to promote the inclusion of children with special educational needs, to support teachers’ skills and to prevent long-term scholastic difficulties.
The project will involve 100 pupils in each country and their teachers and families.

The aims are:

to implement a curriculum at the end of preschool that could improve the transition to primary school, describing the specific skills and competences of children across a wide variety of developmental characteristics and special needs. We aim to construct an instrument for the early evaluation of competence in a number of language and communication dimensions – with a predictive value;
to implement an intervention programme to support the teachers’ educational strategies in order to improve the development of those children’s skills considered most important for facilitating social inclusion;
to test the programme’s ability to predict and improve the learning abilities and social well-being of the children in their first year of primary school;
to compare the use of the TALK in different cultural contexts – Italy, Belgium and Romania – in order to adapt the instrument to cultural specificities and to promote integration and collaboration between different countries.

Organization

Italy (Verona)
Università degli studi di Verona – Dipartimento Scienze Umane (coordinator)

Italy (Reggio Emilia)
Progetto Crescere (partner)

Romania (Cluj-Napoca)
Asociatia Specialistilor in Terapia Tulburarilor de Limbaj din Romania (partner)

Belgium (Gent)
HOGESCHOOL GENT (partner)

Polonia (Krakow)
Zwiazek Stowarzyszen Multikultura Association

Cosa stiamo facendo in Italia

1) Coinvolgimento delle istituzioni scolastiche per la sperimentazione del curriculum

Collaborano al progetto le scuole:
Scuola dell’infanzia Statale “Pezzani” (Istituto Comprensivo Pertini 1)
Scuola dell’infanzia Statale “Don Lorenzo Milani” (Istituto Comprensivo "Antonio Ligabue")
Scuola dell’infanzia Statale “Don Guglielmi” (Istituto Comprensivo "Antonio Ligabue")

Multiplier Event a conclusione del progetto

Il linguaggio verbale: una finestra sullo sviluppo
EVENTO RIMANDATO A SETTEMBRE
Sala Convegni Confcooperative Reggio Emilia, Largo Gerra 1

Meetings in Europe

1° transnational meeting (Verona): 30-31 october 2017 Meeting Programme

2° transnational meeting (Ghant-Belgio): 15-16 january 2018

3° transnational meeting (Cluj Napoca-Romania): 29-30 october 2018 Meeting Programme

4° transnational meeting (Reggio Emlia): 10-11 june 2019 Meeting Programme