Research Projects
Department of Developmental Psychology and Department of Special Education started carrying out a project for creating and adapting instruments for assessing preschoolers’ development
Project duration: 22 months (2014.07.01 – 2016.04.30)
Financed by: European Economic Area Grant
Principal investigator at the University of Tartu: Pille Häidkind, lecturer, PhD, Department of Special Education
Foreign partners:
Department of Early Childhood Education, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Oslo, Norway
Special Education Research Institute, Russian Academy of Education, Moscow, Russia
The first step towards the improvement of the well-being of children with special needs and the enhancement of their educational attainment is an early screening for children at risk and assessment of their development. The specialists working with preschool children need standardized tests as objective tools for assessing child development. The Department of Developmental Psychology and Department of Special Education carry out the project Creating and Adapting Instruments for Assessing the Development of Preschoolers. The project is aimed at adapting several internationally renowned tools for the assessment of language and cognitive development in Estonia (MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories - Short Version, Strebeleva method, PEP-3). In addition, an original test for assessing language development of 3-4-year-old children is devised based on the Estonian language and a method for assessing social skills of 3-4 year-old children is developed.
The project Creating and Adapting Instruments for Assessing the Development of Preschoolers benefits from a 233 404€ grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants.
The programme proposal was prepared in close collaboration with the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) as a donor programme partner (DPP) and other institutions in Norway. Programme is managed jointly by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research (MoER), the Estonian Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) and by the Estonian Youth Work Centre (EYWC) as a Programme Operator Implementing Agency (POIA).
Through the EEA Grants and Norway Grants, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway contribute to reducing social and economic disparities and to strengthening bilateral relations with the beneficiary countries in Europe. The three countries cooperate closely with the EU through the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA).
For the period 2009-14, the EEA Grants and Norway Grants amount to €1.79 billion. Norway contributes around 97% of the total funding. Grants are available for NGOs, research and academic institutions, and the public and private sectors in the 12 newest EU member states, Greece, Portugal and Spain. There is broad cooperation with donor state entities, and activities may be implemented until 2016.
Key areas of support are environmental protection and climate change, research and scholarships, civil society, health and children, gender equality, justice and cultural heritage.
More information: Pille Häidkind, pille-haidkind [ät] ut.ee
Anni Tamm, anni.tamm [ät] ut.ee