Children's transition between home and ECEC services: Innovative practices during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Italy, the pandemic committed ECEC professionals to find new strategies to maintain meaningful relationships with children and parents during the long period of closure of ECEC services, and to reconsider educational practices when services reopened. During the closure, many initiatives were carried out by Italian ECEC professionals to keep in touch with parents and support children's play and learning activities at home. These initiatives were oriented by government guidelines (LEAD- Legami Educativi a Distanza). At the reopening, professionals had to rethink their usual practice of ambientamento, that is aimed at ensuring a children's gradual transition from home to ECEC service. In this chapter, the authors present an analysis of professionals' reflections concerning the impact of LEAD initiatives and changes they introduced in the ambientamento practice on the quality of children's and parents' transition. The professionals' reflections were developed within an action-research project that involved 140 ECEC professionals. The study provided an example of how professionals were able to guarantee a positive transition experience to both children and parents despite the constraints imposed by COVID-19 safety protocols. The opportunities of sharing reflection on practice between ECEC professionals were a powerful tool to face unexpected situations and innovate practices.