Sostenere la costruzione delle competenze grafo-pittoriche infantili. Il gioco come strumento di scaffolding

Introduction Results of researches demonstrated that it is necessary to support children’s drawing using an approach that leverages awareness of the different phases of their development. In this way teachers and educators can give each child the possibility to bring out potentiality otherwise unexpressed. In order to pursue these aims the University of Macerata in collaboration with Clementoni Toys Company developed a new line of games oriented to support drawing skills. Research study The line developed during the Eureka Project, named “Sapientino Art”, currently includes 6 games for children, characterized by selected and graduated activities, tools and materials in order to support drawing skills. The contents of the games were defined according to a gathering of data, collected on a sample of 180 children belonging to different level of schools, between February and March 2015 (first phase) and June and July 2015 (second phase). During this period we tested hypothesized activities and materials in order to improve the line before the production. Every game has an educational guidebook for teachers, educators and parents with indicators on children’s drawing development and ideas to play together. In the last phase of the project (January - June 2016) we structured a follow-up with educators and teachers on a representative sample of 155 children attending infant schools and primary schools distributed in North, Centre and South of Italy. The objective of the follow-up is to recognise if these games can effectively support educators and teachers to stimulate children drawing abilities development.