TRAINING ON LEARNING DISABILITIES FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS. NEW STRATEGIES AND METHODOLOGIES AND ICT CONTRIBUTIONS Erasmus Project

Project Title

TRAINING ON LEARNING DISABILITIES FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS. NEW STRATEGIES AND METHODOLOGIES AND ICT CONTRIBUTIONS

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 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Disabilities – special needs; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development)

Project Summary

“TRAINING ON LEARNING DISABILITIES FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS. NEW STRATEGIES AND ICT CONTRIBUTIONS” As a group of educational advisers, we realized that teachers and parents in our working area had a lack of useful materials, like specific tools and software for pupils with learning disabilities. Although nowadays they are using useful strategies to manage with pupils with learning disabilities and they begin to understand the need of using ICT, they have barriers to use these ICT tools and they need to improve their digital and computer skills, besides knowing the innovative methodologies that may increase pupils with learning disabilities learning.

This project has the next main objectives: 1- To develop innovative practices in our institutions, extending the use of ICT tools; 2- To analyse current and new practices in teachers and parents dealing with learning disabilities; 3- To improve teachers competences in ICT and innovative methodologies, specially those that may allow them to help pupils with learning disabilities; 4- To enhance better levels of ICT use in the educational context; 5- To introduce positive changes in the teaching-learning processes through adults training; 6- To increase teachers motivation by using innovative practices; 7- To provide parents a better support about how to deal with learning disabilities towards an ICT training, and 8- To increase the performance at the school of pupils with learning disabilities.

The participants are 5 institutions, with a heterogeneous number of staff directly involved in the project (around 5 to 8 members of each team), and indirectly involved, the rest of them. The profile of the staff is: psychologists, pedagogues, ICT and computers technicians and managers.

This project was initially thought to create some useful materials to help teachers and parents who have children with learning disabilities (Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia, Attention Disorder and Hyperactivity or Non-verbal learning desease, because these are the most frequent learning disabilities) in order to increase their levels of learning, to improve their school results and to prevent early school leaving.

The main results and activities we intend to achieve are: 1- A critical analysis about how teachers and parents deal with learning disabilities and what do they need and what problems we have to solve out, in order to help, in a better way, to pupils with learning disabilities to gain educational objectives; 2- A methodological guide with useful strategies that may allow us to solve the problems found in the critical analysis out and to give answer to teachers and parents needs, specially those ones that have a disadvantage situation. This guide would include ICT tools to learn better, including specific tools to each learning disability, and general tools, such as activities and software to improve executive functions or memory. Teachers and parents could understand better the contents with the glossary of terms; 3- Designing and developing Courses and Pedagogical materials for teachers and parents. These materials could help to other advisers and adult trainers to organize other training courses about learrning disabilities and ICT in educational context in the future; 4- A videogame for children with lack of executive functions, to train some skills in a highly motivating way, and to motivate teachers and parents to use these tools in the classroom and at home; 5- A portal web “MULTIFUNCTIONAL INTERNET PLATFORM – European Help-desk for learning difficulties”, containing all the materials, educational issues related links, learning disabilities, as well as local, regional, national and european resources, a support net to people who access to the portal, information and pieces of advice about educational topics (specially ICT tools for learning disabilities), among other materials.

All partners involved participated in these products, although each country has been the coordinator of an output. Each material about a specific learning disability had a coordinator aswell.

In our opinion, the results have a great sustainability, because all of them are included in the portal www.helpdeskinld.com, an Internet platform open to everybody. In addition to this, we will continue developing courses in the future with our own budget and we have disseminated the results in several platforms: E-twinning, EPALE, our own webs, other local, regional and national webs, press, TV and radio and through our work with other institutions directly, because we are external advisers that visit a lot of schools and educational institutions (Educational Inspection, University, Secondary and Primary Schools, Associations…)

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 136293 Eur

Project Coordinator

EQUIPO DE ORIENTACIÓN EDUCATIVA Y PSICOPEDAGOGICA DE MOLINA DE SEGURA & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Progetto Crescere Soc. Coop. Soc.
• Vilniaus miesto psichologine- pedagogine tarnyba
• Kecioren Rehberlik Arastirma Merkezi
• ZWIAZEK STOWARZYSZEN MULTIKULTURA