Early Intervention Services for Families with Children with Vision Impairment and Additional Disabilities Erasmus Project

Project Title

Early Intervention Services for Families with Children with Vision Impairment and Additional Disabilities

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Disabilities – special needs; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development)

Project Summary

Children with vision impairment and additional disabilities (VIAD) or deafblindness (D/B) have unique needs and require adaptations on intervention strategies. Early intervention services (EISs) are vital for children’s health, education and quality of life. The ErISFaVIA project concerns the training of professionals regarding EISs for children with VIAD or D/B. Early intervention services are demanding programs and can only be implemented by highly skilled and trained professionals. The ErISFAVIA project aims to address the following objectives: a. to develop a training program for professionals working in early intervention settings, b. to create early intervention opportunities for children with VIAD or D/B, c. to promote the collaboration between universities, schools and associations of children with VIAD or D/B, and d. to point out the best practices and guidelines for the development of effective EISs for children with VIAD or D/B. Ten organizations (e.g. universities, NGOs, schools) are included in the ErISFaVIA project, consisting of researchers and practitioners of common interest and a unique combination of skills and experience both within and outside the academic field on EISs and VIAD or D/B children’s education, and will share the knowledge and experience to meet the above objectives.
The activities of the ErISFaVIA project are distributed according to the intellectual results and the management and implementation of the project. In particular, activities could be described as follows: a. designing and creating the program collaboration platform, b. literature review and needs assessment study, c. educational material and training events, d. reflective logs and questionnaires, e. collating case studies and elaborate relevant research data, f. best practices guide, g. dissemination and exploitation and h. policy recommendations and guidelines. The proposed methodology in the ErISFaVIA project will be oriented at two levels, namely the local and the overall level. Regarding the item Project management and implementation, each beneficiary is responsible for the local management of its time and resources. The overall strategy of the ErISFaVIA project will be based on a synthetic plan of activities to meet its goals. This plan will include possible avenues through which project activities can be pursued taking into account quality, time, finance, risks, feasibility, IPR (Intellectual Properties Rights) protection and dissemination.
In the long-term perspective, the project will benefit families, young children with VIAD or D/B and the participating educational settings and associations. The project is likely to have a substantial positive impact on professionals and their future professional practice. The trained professionals can exploit their knowledge and skills and the training material to support and enhance families and children with VIAD or D/B at their associations, educational and family settings. Parts of the above will be uploaded in the ErISFaVIA portal as an Open Educational Resources and stakeholders will have the chance to interact through the ErISFaVIA portal, to exchange their experience and ideas, share their concerns and improve their methods and techniques. Additionally, participating organisations will involve other stakeholders from the local community as much as possible in the project activities (national conferences, European conference, development of best practices guide and Police Recommendations and Guidelines Report). Also, it is expected that several organisations for people with disabilities at national or European level will host in their websites these outputs in order to enrich their website and increase the number of visits in their website. The academics from all participating universities will be invited to integrate ErISFaVIA results in their lectures and refer to ErISFaVIA in future publications or projects. Furthermore, they could organize conferences or workshops based on the ErISFaVIA results. It is strongly supported from the above that the program will contribute to enhancing and developing effective EISs, enhancing the skills of professionals and supporting families and children with VIAD or D/B.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 417789 Eur

Project Coordinator

PANEPISTIMIO THESSALIAS & Country: EL

Project Partners

• Amimoni – Panhellenic Association of parents and friends of visually impaired people with additional handicaps
• Blindeninstitut München / Maria-Ludwig-Ferdinand-Schule
• Liceul Special pentru Deficienti de Vedere Cluj-Napoca
• ISTANBUL MEDENIYET UNIVERSITY
• St Barnabas School for the Blind
• “SYZOI” Association of Parents, Guardians and Friends of Visually Impaired Children with Additional Disabilities
• UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI