Author Archives: childin

ChildIN Competence Framework evaluated in Coimbra

On April 29 2019, a group of 15 Portuguese parents, professionals and Vocational and Educational Training (VET) providers met in Coimbra to evaluate the ChildIN Competence Framework, aiming at defining the knowledge, skills, responsibility and autonomy needed for home-based childminders dealing with children on the autism spectrum. Parallel to this, two other focus groups have also been set in Poland and in France with the same objective.

At the end this activity, which takes the format of a focus group, the following points were highlighted:

A) the criticism of using the term “discovery interview”;

B) the importance of the management of parental expectations by the childminders;

C) the childminders’ scientific and technical knowledge about the autistic child;

D) the importance of autonomy in the childminders’ actions;

E) and the importance of the childminders’ emotional control.

The focus group was driven by Rui Pena, Paulo André and Marco Santos from Academia Comenius, and Elsa Vieira from APPDA Coimbra.

The Competence Framework will define knowledge, skills, responsibility and autonomy needed for home-based childminders dealing with children with autism spectrum disorder: it will also include the learning design (modules design completed with learning outcomes and assessment methods) to achieve defined competences.

Read more about the Focus Group in Poland

Read more about the Focus Group in France

Polish focus group evaluates ChildIN competence framework

On April 15 2019,  a focus group took place in Olsztyn, Poland. The focus group was organized to present the first draft of the Competence Framework to the relevant stakeholders so as to ensure that all aspects needed to make the learning modules effectively applicable are taken into account. Parallel to this, two other focus groups have also been set in France and in Portugal with the same objective.

The 12 participant of the ChildIN focus groups represented the following groups:

-Home-based childminders

-Families (parents and relatives) dealing with autism

-Autistic people

-VET providers

-Healthcare professionals

-Social partners

The participants were able to bring their comments to Competence Framework.

The Competence Framework will define knowledge, skills, responsibility and autonomy needed for home-based childminders dealing with children with autism spectrum disorder: it will also include the learning design (modules design completed with learning outcomes and assessment methods) to achieve defined competences.

Read more about the Focus Group in France

Read more about the Focus Group in Portugal

French professionals and parents evaluate ChildIN standards

On April 10, 24 French professionals, childminders, parents and other stakeholders got together on a focus group in Nevers to evaluate the ChildIN Competence Framework. The meeting, that was organised by French ChildIN partners IPERIA l’Institut and the Department of Nièvre, aimed at improving the skills and training standards developed by IPERIA. Parallel to this, two other focus groups have also been set in Poland and in Portugal with the same objective.

After a brief presentation of the ChildIN project, the focus group participants spilt into working groups to analyse different case studies from the point of view of the qualities, skills and attitudes of childcare; and knowledge or childcare know-how. Then, each group checked the consistency between the case studies and the ChildIN Competence Framework.

French focus group concludes that the proposed competence framework is “rather consistent with the autistic children and families and childminders’ needs and rights. It highlights two important competence areas that must be developed by the childminder: the communication with the family and the professionals that intervene in the child’s life; and the interactions with the child.

The Competence Framework is a substantial building block for the enhancement of a harmonized training provision for home-based childminders on specific topics, and will set the basis for an improved quality of the home-based care of children with autism: its transferability potential is very high, as the competence framework and learning architecture will be applicable in any country of Europe and beyond.

Read more about the Polish Focus Group

Read more about the Portuguese Focus Group

ChildIN kicks off in Paris

On November 14 and 15 2018, 12 professionals and autism associations fromPortugal, france, Poland and Belgium met to launch ChildIN, a new Erasmus+ project aiming at developing a training for childminders to support inclusion of children on the autism spectrum.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the availability and the quality of early education and care (ECEC) in the European Union. Currently available competence frameworks for childminders do not include specific and stand alone learning modules to train to care for children with special needs. The only training available is provided in more general training schemes. 

In the framework of this project, running from November 2018 to December 2020, partners will:

-develop a competence framework for childminders working with autistic children;

-develop an online database of resources to care for  autistic children;

-test and validate a set of blended training materials implementing the learning architecture;

-create guidelines on how to use tools and materials provided by the project, in order to support the use of results by other VET players in Europe;

-draft policy recommendations to provide useful insights for policy planning, in turn contributing to the improvement of the learning offer for childminders, and to the improvement of the quality of care offered to children.

The ChildIN kick-off meeting, hosted by the project coordinator, IPERIA Institut, aimed to share understanding of the purpose of the project as well as to ensure the project’s viability and success in the long-run.

Different issues such as the initiative’s main objectives, the modalities of the programme development, dissemination and coordination aspects were addressed during this two-day meeting. At this initial stage, partners are undertaking a literature review to identify best practices in relation to training on autism and transversal competences.

ChildIN partners will meet again in May 2019 in Olsztyn, Poland. The project foresees five transnational meetings over its two-year lifespan.