Agnes Nyitrai & Judit Podráczky Kaposvár University, Hungary ERPA International Congresses on Education 4-7 June Athens

 SIGNALS: Strengthening Activity-Oriented Interaction and Growth in the Early Years and Transitions project within the COMENIUS sub-programmes of the EU Lifelong-Learning Programme  It is co-ordinated by the University of Cologne  The Hungarian consortium-partner is: General Directorate of Social Affairs and Child Protection  Kaposvár University has been taking part in the realisation of the project

The main targets of the EU-project are the following:  Supporting early-childhood pedagogues, kindergarten- pedagogues and parents in building positive child-adult relationship that will enhance development;  Strengthening the communicative competences of parents and pedagogues working with the 1-8 year-old children (early-childhood pedagogues, kindergarten-pedagogues, primary school teachers);  Presenting „Exemplary Co-operative Educational Practices” among all actors. The targets of Kaposvár University are:  To design methodological programmes for the early childhood pedagogues and kindergarten pedagogues for developing  Their own competences for supporting literacy development of children,  Parent competences which enhance literacy development.

Infant toddler centre Kindergarten  Since 1852  0-3 years of age  Not compulsory  14 % of the age group in the centres (not enough places)  Regulation: social affairs (protection of children)  Central regulation (by law)  children per group  Since 1828  3-6 (7) years of age  Compulsory from 5 years of age (beginning on the 1st of September 2015 from 3 years of age)  Regulation: public education  Central regulation (by law)  children per group

 Emergent literacy: “growing into” written culture in pre- school period with:  Storytelling and picture book reading  Imitating writing and reading in play (in role play)  Experiences in daily activities with parents / adults  Storytelling and picture-book reading in the family have a key role in the development of children  The different socio-cultural situations of families imply significant differences in the literary environment surrounding children  The children with good literacy-environment (storytelling every day, having own picture-books, etc.) have + 1,5 year in development at the time of school-start   the compensation of related disadvantages is an essential task of institutional education

 There have been significant changes regarding attitudes to co- operation with parents (at international level, too)  Strengthening of parents' competences is one of the most important tasks of pedagogues  they must have special competences to do it well, too  Although steps have been taken to form partnerships, pedagogues often think that parents are not interested enough while parents think pedagogues do not give them enough feedback and help  Parental involvement depends on the children's age: pedagogues and parents must rely more on each other at younger ages of children and this is the best time for forming a partnership

Aims:  To design a programme aimed at improving parent competences for supporting literacy development   To map pedagogues' and parents' opinions, attitudes and experiences about story-telling, picture books, etc. Methods: focus-group interviews and semi-structured individual interviews Sample:  30 early childhood pedagogues (5 infant toddler centres, about 294 children)  30 kindergarten pedagogues (2 kindergartens, about 306 children)

1. Children's attitudes to tales, storytelling, books in infant toddler centre and in kindergarten. 2. Storytelling habits at home, trends and changes. 3. Supporting parents involvement, possibilities for co- operation, promotion, mutual reflection regarding storytelling. 4. The place and the role of storytelling in the work of the education staff, their competences, strengths and weaknesses

Infant toddler centre Kindergarten  Often tv instead of picture- book or storytelling  Early childhood pedagogues didn’t see any picture books in the families’ home  2 years old child has got an own tablet  Parents read stories to develop children's skills  Some positive experiences, e.g.: parent has old books from own childhood  Varied picture: storytelling takes place often, rarely or never (in families)  Books are rarely given to children (as a present), and sometimes with the aim of supporting development  „trendy tales”  Intimacy between parents and children isn't as important as it was before

Infant toddler centre Kindergarten  Families have strong influence on attitudes to storytelling of children: more storytelling at home, better understanding  Mothers have a strong influence on it  Puppets are very important for small children  Positive attitudes to storytelling have been forming step by step  Using books must be learnt  Children like storytelling, but they less and less can listen to it  They like picture book reading with pedagogue together  They rarely bring books from home  The pedagogues have positive experiences in library visiting  The media-tales are often present during the play of children  pedagogues' opinion: it is not positive

Infant toddler centreKindergarten  Parents would like to know text of nursery rhymes  Pedagogues recommend often picture books to parents, but they don't know whether the parents take their advise  Common storytelling with parents and children  ambivalent experiences  Interactive storytelling with parents  it wasn't successful  There were drama plays on parents evening  first there was aversion against it  Parents talk to pedagogues only in situations with difficulties

Infant toddler centreKindergarten  Pedagogues feel they are alone in this  They need some professional support, but it is very hard, because of there aren't enough money for further training  It would be very useful to make some collection of stories  A book written of „Storytelling in nursery” would be good  Pedagogues don't really know the contemporary literature for children  They would have consultation with HUNRA (Hungarian Reading Society)  They recommend books, tales, etc. to each other  They don‚t really know the new animation films for children (it depends on, how old are their own children)

Infant toddler centre N= 54 opinions Kindergarten N= 52 opinions

Infant toddler centre N= 6 opinions Kindergarten N= 22 opinions

In field of study:  We would like to study of the pedagogues' parent image, we regard these as a major determining factor of the relationship with parents and with children In field of methodological development:  Developing a continuing educational project which could help to optimize the relationship with parents / families and to form attitudes in connection with parents, and focus on differentiated methods to involve parents and concrete action plans.  Programmes for pedagogues for developing their own competences for supporting literacy development of children

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR ATTENTION! Agnes Nyitrai & Judit Podráczky