El Cuestionario sobre la Comunicación Social Precoz como instrumento de diálogo entre la escuela infantil y la familiaogo tra nido e famiglia

Abstract

This action research was carried out in the nursery school of the Ferrero Company (Italy) and aimed at supporting childminders in two aspects characterizing their professional role: the systematic observation of children’s developing competences and the management of the participation of children’s families in the school's daily life.

In order to assess communicative behaviours in children from 2 up to 30 months of age, the Early Social Communication Questionnaire (QCSP) was used. Twelve childminders and the parents of 53 children independently filled up the questionnaire.

The children’s QCSP scores grew regularly with age, and the correlation between childminders’ or parents’  scores and age was good; thus, the QCSP proved to be a reliable tool for observing children’s developing communicative competence. The interclass correlation between parents and childminders was good as well; generally, the parents’ scores were slightly higher than the childminders’ ones.

These results were discussed with the childminders’ team, delving into the influence of different contextual features (number and kind of persons, environmental organization and routines) on children’s communicative behaviours at home and in the school. Moreover, childminders discussed the use of the QCSP as a useful support in the dialogue among colleagues and between educators and parents, in so far as this observational questionnaire allows to have an individual image of each child’s competence.