Addressing the invisibility of children aged 0-3 for social services via participatory assessment: notes from a pilot study

Abstract

The pilot study precedes a broader research aimed at identifying the effects on parenting and development of children between 0 and 3 years old (REC 2013/112 / EU), of an Italian policy against poverty. The goal is to describe the effects of introducing a specific parenting assessment tool (Roggman et al., 2013), in a participatory key, on socio-educational practices with vulnerable families with children aged 0 to 3. The results were obtained through semi-structured interviews with 19 professionals involved in a research-training-action experience. They indicate an improvement in observation skills and — the most significant — the creation of a new space for dialogue and reflection on parenting and children development. This latter reveals to be a scarcely addressed area in the context of policy interventions against poverty. Pedagogical, methodological and communicative challenges that emerge from the results are discussed.

Keywords

• early childhood intervention
• parenting support
• social disadvantage
• social and educational work
• assessment tools