DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS
LiMErIC is a European LLP – Grundtvig funded project that happened in 2012 and 2013 (december, 31). Its partners are: Tagesmütter Graz-Steiermark, a nanny association in Austria; FormAzione Co&So, a social cooperatives Consortium in Tuscany, Italy; ARIADNE, a pedagogical consultant associated to the NGO intitulada Muttersweg; INIT Development Ltd, a German specialist for the dissemination of projects; a regional council in Izmir, Turkey; the Discovery Centre of the University of Wales, in Newport, which specialises in dealing with children’s learning needs; and the Soros Educational Center Foundation de Miercurea Ciuc, in Romania, another NGO. The main aim of project LiMErIC is the nonformal training of adults (nannies, kindergarten teachers and nursery teachers, childcare center managers, cultural entertainers and ‘au pair’) who work with pre-school children from immigrant parents outside institutions in the area of language development and intercultural issues. The training contentes include pedagogical theory, language acquisition theory and awareness strategies for intercultural competence development. This is developed in non formal ways through blended learning models with recourse to ICT and distance learning modules on a Moodle platform. The project researched on three key areas for European childcare minders training: a needs report on identified challenges entitled ‘The provision of childcare services’, a comparative review of 30 European countries, and a training curriculum for the non-formal training of child carers. This project’s activities respond to the following needs: child development in multicultural settings, the development of intercultural competences of child minders and carers, the acquisition of knowledge on the difficulties of language development and speech that may affect children and how to support parents and families to deal with those problems. The project offers tem training modules that have been developed and tested in several countries.
COMMENTS ON THIS PUBLICATION
The departing point for LiMErIC is the successful integration in early childhood of immigrant children through high quality child minding services offered to them. This depends on the early acquisition of child minding services in the host country language ando n the development of attitudes of tolerance and intercultural awareness on the part of every person that comes in contact with these children. The LiMErIC project web portal offers access to a series of training and educational materials that are of high quality and may be used throughout Europe, such as: ‘Diversity and Equity in Early Education’; ‘Early childhood education and care’ and ‘The provision of childcare services, a comparative review of 30 European countries’.
These are the foundation documents on which the LiMErIC project builds its vision of the educational needs to train child minders. ‘New Educational Challenges in Extra-institutional Child care in Europe’, prepared by The Discovery Centre, University of Wales Newport, identifies the training needs and explains why people may be led to seek this king of training.
‘Language MEets Intercultural Competences. A handbook for a Training Course for Childminders’ is another interesting course material available on the project’s portal. It highlights the scientific and pedagogical framework on which the ten training modules are based: 1 Getting started; 2 Language Development; 3 Fostering Language Development; 4 Multilingualism; 5 Promoting Learning; Mid term Review; 6 Intercultural Behaviour; 7 Culture and Territory; 8 Communication & Conflict Management; 9 Co-operation with parents;10 Reflection, presentation of work, certification.
There is also a glossary in English on the several child minding scenarios, which covers a whole range of situations and prospective target audiences for the pedagogical training materials produced.