This study uses an innovative approach (Teaching and assessing language for kids’ hereafter TALK), which combines a range of methodologies in a cross-cultural perspective in order to study two specific areas: the continuity between preschool and primary school and the assessment of early competences. The aims are:to implement a baseline of assessment at the end of preschool that could improve the transition to primary school, describing the specific skills and competences of children across a wide variety of developmental characteristics and special needs. We aim to construct an instrument for the early evaluation of competence in a number of language and communication dimensions – with a predictive value;to implement an intervention programme to support the teachers’ educational strategies in order to improve the development of those children’s skills considered most important for facilitating social inclusion; to test the programme’s ability to predict and improve the learning abilities and social well-being of the children in their first year of primary school; to compare the use of the TALK in different cultural contexts – Italy, Belgium and Romania – in order to adapt the instrument to cultural specificities and to promote integration and collaboration between different countries.
