FOSTERING INCLUSIVE LEARNING FOR CHILDREN WITH DYSLEXIA IN EUROPE BY PROVIDING EASY-TO-USE VIRTUAL AND/OR AUGMENTED REALITY TOOLS AND GUIDELINES Erasmus Project

Project Title

FOSTERING INCLUSIVE LEARNING FOR CHILDREN WITH DYSLEXIA IN EUROPE BY PROVIDING EASY-TO-USE VIRTUAL AND/OR AUGMENTED REALITY TOOLS AND GUIDELINES

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Pedagogy and didactics; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

During the development of the FORDYS-VAR project, materials have been developed to improve the quality of life of school children with dyslexia.
The project has focused on several important points that improve educational inclusion:

– The creation of motivating VR and AR materials that can be used as a complement to traditional dyslexia interventions for schoolchildren. In this sense, both AR and VR applications constitute motivational materials, developed to work on different difficulties of children with dyslexia in two different age ranges (8-12 and 12-16). These applications have mainly taken into account the realization of an inclusive material within video games.
The materials are free to download and have been adapted to oculus quest technology in the case of VR and in the case of AR they can be used on tablets or smartphones. In this sense the technology is advancing very fast and adaptations have been made so that it can also be used with the second generation of oculus.
– An e-book has been developed so that families, associations of relatives with dyslexia have access to different materials in the three languages of the project partners. This book includes applications and resources in VR and AR that can be used safely. As a reinforcement of this ebook, applications in Portuguese have also been collected and the ebook has been translated into this language.
Another reinforcement has been the inclusion of guidelines and materials for English language learning in children with dyslexia whose first language is Spanish, since one of the main difficulties and concerns that associations and families have communicated to us has been this circumstance: children with dyslexia learn a second language in a different way, since their language processing is different.
– The white paper contains scientific information on the needs of children with dyslexia and the different treatment approaches used in the EU. As well as the development of the main policy lines in each of the countries.
In this way, schoolchildren with dyslexia will have a greater inclusion that will result in improved accessibility to the school world.
As a reinforcement of this material, common European policies on educational inclusion and a new section on Portuguese policies have been included, as well as the Portuguese translation of this material.
The design of all the materials, make FORDYS-VAR a project for the different professionals to have a set of materials adapted to the group, their interests and needs, improving the quality of life of children with dyslexia during their school period, reducing frustration and low self-esteem of these children.
Throughout the development of the project, we have worked with different education professionals, so that through collaboration and dissemination of the project they can learn and improve their knowledge about dyslexia, their possible interventions and skills in the field.
Another one of the pillars of the project development has been the collaboration with associations of families of children with dyslexia, these associations have actively participated in the development of the project materials. In this sense, FORDYSVAR has given visibility to new materials that can be a part of dyslexia interventions both in the family and in the school, since its materials aren´t restricted only to professionals, it facilitates intervention from different perspectives.
VR and AR materials are a motivating element at ages when traditional interventions are difficult. From the point of view of computer development and application design, the incorporation of schoolchildren with dyslexia to the network can open a wide field of new needs and market opportunities for computer development companies, in fact we have seen how in recent years the interest and development of new projects and research within VR and AR has increased especially in the field of social and health care; pedagogical or didactic.
Thanks to the partnership formed by 5 participants from Spain, Italy and Romania and the collaboration of Portugal, it has been possible to carry out this project despite the many difficulties that its development has entailed within the pandemic situation that we have experienced.
The partners have remained active in spite of the difficulties, carrying out the planned activities and the proposed reinforcements, always thinking about the development of the best final product for the benefit of children with this learning difficulty.

Project Website

https://fordysvar.eu/en/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 358232,8 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSIDAD DE BURGOS & Country: ES

Project Partners

• IRCCS – ASSOCIAZIONE LA NOSTRA FAMIGLIA ‘ISTITUTO SCIENTIFICO EUGENIO MEDEA’
• AUGMENTED REALITY SOFTWARE
• ASOCIATIA BUCURESTI PENTRU COPII DISLEXICI
• SENIOR EUROPA SOCIEDAD LIMITADA