Funded by the Erasmus+
Programme of the
European Union
You are about to read the third newsletter of the WELCOME project, which is coordinated by the Nakladatelství Dr. Josef Raabe s.r.o. publishing house. It is an international European Erasmus+ project that falls within Key Action 2 (KA2), with the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria as participating countries. Our project partners include Charles University in Prague, Research Institute for Child Psychology and Pathopsychology in Bratislava, Institute for Mental Health and Development in Sofia, the online agency M7 in Bratislava, as well as primary schools and kindergartens in all the participating countries which cooperate on the development and testing of the project’s main output. These include Kindergarten Mirotice, Kindergarten and Primary School Zubrohlava and Kindergarten Prikazka bez krai in Sofia.
The main objective of the WELCOME project is to support inclusion in kindergartens and offer functional tools for working with children with special needs in education (SNE) whose development is impacted by a disability, or a disadvantage. We will provide teachers with a theoretical foundation and practical solutions for the systematic support of children with SNE within group and individual work. The main project outputs are:
The Manual for Working with Children with SNE in Kindergartens was subjected to internal review in which it was commented on by experts from all the institutions that cooperated on the creation of this publication. In the last months of 2017, it was reviewed by more than 60 teachers from various kindergartens in Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. They had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with The Manual for Working with Children with SNE in Kindergartens beforehand, and at a moderated discussion that lasted for several hours they evaluated the material in close detail. And what kind of feedback have we received from practice?
The teachers appreciated the comprehensive and cohesive nature of the publication and the fact that both parts are balanced: the theoretical part provides a well-rounded overview of the special educational needs of children which the teachers can encounter in the kindergarten, and the methodological part offers the possibility of pedagogic diagnostics in the individual areas of the child’s development, it outlines possibilities for further development, specific education activities, examples of good practice and available resources.
What was important was mainly the conclusion of our discussions with kindergarten teachers, according to whom we managed to create an easy-to-follow and comprehensive material that brings sufficient amount of theoretical and practical information, and that remains easy to understand and user friendly. We are immensely pleased that we managed to meet the goals as planned.
The interactive application that allows for working with individual children, as well as with the whole group received its final appearance, and we are currently working hard on developing content for the application. At the moment, we are preparing activities for programming that will cover all the monitored areas of the child’s development and that will be useful both for children with special needs in education, and for other children in the class or group.
In relation to the evaluation of the child’s level in the individual areas of education, the application will recommend specific activities aimed at helping the child develop their skills in the respective area. The results of pedagogic diagnostics can be printed out or downloaded by every teacher, who will thus have the opportunity continuously to benchmark the child’s progress.
The project outputs will climax with the Handbook for the Use of the Interactive Application with Children in Kindergarten. The key theoretical knowledge necessary for working with children with SNE will be obtained by teachers in our publication – Manual for Working with Children with SNE in Kindergarten. They will then find activities aimed at developing these children in the application. The only question left unanswered is HOW SHOULD WE DO IT?
In the Handbook, the teachers will find both a methodological introduction that explains the principle of individualized education that is carried out through the interactive application, as well as practical scenarios and recommendations regarding the organization of work with a heterogenous group of children and with targeted differentiation and support of children with SNE. Practical scenarios intended for various age groups of pre-school children will be used to explain to the teachers how to use the application in directed activity with a larger group of children that includes also children with SNE, and how to manage the combination of individual and group activities in a way that would be suitable for the needs of all the participating children.
The Manual for Working with Children with SNE in Kindergarten will be finalized before summer 2018, and the publication will be made into a book in all project languages. The application will continue to be filled with further activities, which will be subjected to testing. All the participating organizations will cooperate on the creation of the Handbook for the Use of the Interactive Application with Children in Kindergartens. After this Handbook has been completed that will contain various suggestions for various activities that use the application, we will start preparing pilot integrated blocks during which teachers will work directly with the children using activities contained in the WELCOME application. The last project meeting is scheduled to be held in Prague in late 2018.
Projekt WELCOME se prezentuje:
Follow our outputs, support the authors and provide us with feedback on how successful we are in meeting our goals!
Have a wonderful spring!
© 2016 Nakladatelství Dr. Josef Raabe, s.r.o.
