Who we are…

In the Fall of 2017, Berlin Cosmopolitan School received Erasmus+ funding to partner with ICEC kindergartens in Helsinki, The Pikler Ház institute in Budapest, an institution dedicated to research on bonding in early childhood, and the University Camilo José Cela , a university who focuses on metalinguistic studies.

What we are doing…

The results of these efforts are four handbooks: two for families, and two for educators, available to all families on this website in the near future. One handbook focuses on language awareness, identity and culture, and the other is focused on settling in and prosilience. PROSILIENCE is the ability to overcome adverse conditions. This term is used as a proactive way to help foster confident and secure children rather than a reactive way to deal with trauma.

The books for families as well as this website guides families with a variety of tips, experiences and relates to them with practical tips and theory behind how to best settle in a child in this setting. The importance of respect, planning, communication are also central themes in this project. The books for families provide support, answers to common questions and practical tips regarding settling in and multi-lingual environments. Connected to the handbooks will also be materials for educators and families to use with their children to help make this important process as seamless as possible. 

Why?

The purpose is for families to learn more about bonding and metalinguistics so that they can use this information and research to form a better support for educators, families and the child when settling in young children to a multi-lingual, international settling. The focus is on children from eleven months to seven-years-old entering a kindergarten where the languages spoken in the kindergarten may not be what they speak at home. The research team is interested in how multiple languages affects a child's ability to form relationships and bonds with their educators and classmates when entering into a new environment. 

There are two ultimate goals of this project:

1. To support families in understanding how go communicate as well as prepare with their child’s education team when entering into a multi-lingual kindergarten setting. 

2. To aid kindergartens and educators in their lifelong learning process as well as given tips, materials and theoretical knowledge to help create the best possible the settling in process for their incoming children and their families.