<< Background >>Autism is a severe developmental disorder of neurobiological nature, which often occurs at birth or at the age of 18 months - 2 years of the child. Autism is a behavioral syndrome characterized by difficulties in communication and language, social and behavioral (through stereotyped, repetitive, autostimulatory behaviors). From 2000 to 2010, the prevalence of autism has doubled according to international statistics published in March 2014, which makes autism a more common cause. More specifically, if in 2000 one in 150 people had autism, in 2010 one out of 68 children is affected by an autistic spectrum disorder.A research done Sociometrics Association - Social and Economic Analysis Group for Romanian and Angel Appeal Foundation (RAA) shows that, in the opinion of parents with ASD children, teachers are very much willing to contribute to the integration of the child (42% of the respondents) but only 22% of them state that the teaching staff knows what to do. There are training courses in many dialectical training institutions, but not strictly for autism, but for working with children with special educational needs - generally, so that this spectrum is included, but there is no course to be dedicated to autism.<< Objectives >>The project was intended to implement a Pilot course for teachers working with ASD children in mainstream schools and to develop a teacher guide (educational support). The Pilot course has been implemented following the formation of a group of experts from each partner organization according to the results of a needs group analysis of the target group. Teacher training was based on current information on children with ASD, specific methods. The Teacher's Guide contain, besides models of learning and assessment tools for children with ASD and adapted programs for Communication and language development for children with ASD from kindergarten to high school. Within this project, 27 trainers and 48 teachers from integrative schools working with students with ASD were trained.<< Implementation >>The activities implemented were: - Official transactions: signing the grant agreement and signing contracts with partners.- A representative of each partner organization was formed on the project steering committee.- Project teams were formed in each partner organization: Each partner informed its staff and members about the EMT & ASD project, determined who will be involved in the project implementation process and their responsibilities.- Quality management teams were formed in each partner organization: These teams had members of the project team from each partner institution and members of their own organizing board.- Was created the Project Logo.- Specific procedures were developed and the beneficiaries of the activities for project implementation, LTTA, pilot course and project evaluation were selected.- Various plans have been developed (Project Quality Assurance Plan, Communication Plan, Budget Plan, Risks Management Plan, Dissemination and Exploitation Plan, Evaluation Plan), for the good implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the project.- Transnational Project Meeting: M1_RO (19-20.11.2019) _ face to face meeting. M16_ GR (22-23.02.2022)_ face to face meting- Transnational Project Meetings online : M2 _ONLINE (2.06.2020); M3_ONLINE (17.09.2020); M4_ONLINE (5.11.2020); M5 _ ONLINE (17.12.2020); M6_ ONLINE (21.01.2021); M7_ONLINE (22.02.2021); M8_ONLINE (23.03.2021); M9_ONLINE(6.05.2021); M10_ONLINE (21.07.2021); M11 (14.09.2021); M12_ONLINE (19.10.2021); M13_ONLINE (10.11.2021); M14_ONLINE (14.12.2021); M15_ONLINE (28.01.2022); - Partners sent to the Coordinator 3 Financial Reports (DURING 1.11.2019- 1.05.2020 , DURING 1.11.2019 - 31.10.2010 and DURING 1.11.2019 – 28.02.2022).- A training course for specialists was organized within the LTTA, which was attended by 27 people.- 4 Pilot Training Courses were organized, attended by 70 teachers working with children with ASD.- A number of 385 specialists in the field were involved in the evaluation of the final products using a Google Forms questionnaire.- 4 Multiplier Events were organized for the dissemination of the project products in which 796 (96 face to face and 700 online) people participated.- Quality Control Reports made by each partner institutions: Each partners completed a report for period 1.11.2019 – 31.10.2020 and 1.11.2019 – 28.02.2022- Dissemination reports made by each partner organization: Each partners completed a report for period 1.11.2019 – 31.10.2020 and 1.11.2019 – 28.02.2022.<< Results >>- Professional skills and competencies have been trained / developed in educators / teachers (70) and experts (27) working with students with ASD in integrative schools.- A curriculum has been developed for the training of specialists and a curriculum for the training of teachers working with students with ASD in mainstream schools, for pre-school, primary, secondary and high school education cycles. - A guide for teachers, in 4 languages (e-book and on paper ) has been developed for teachers working in boarding schools with children with ASD - A website was created for the project- A needs analysis report about the training of teachers with students with ASD from mainstream schools, from the four partner countries

"MEET aimed to fill the gap existing in approaching early childhood education as far as the transversal approach is concerned. It was urgent to work on transversal approach, since childhood is a target approaching the word with a transversal attitude. The partnership was composed by: SPECCHIO Magico from Italy, a social cooperative focused on children education, AGIFODENT from Spain, an educational centre, CARDET from Cyprus, an NPO working on educational platform and EARLY YEARS, a NPO from Northern Ireland focused on children with disabilities. MEET helps in creating innovative transversal skills to the professionals and to the parents, favouring learning activities and ease school processes. We developed an innovation in the training plan, through the Guideline and a ICT tool, addressed to involved professionals and parents, as strategic player. The E-guidelines- IO1- produced, are addressed to teachers, educators and professionals from the field of education and scholastic system directly involved in working with children in an early childhood and care perspective and in pre school ages. The innovative methodological element was the enhancement of the experience consolidated and validated on teaching people with disabilities for the entire school system. Our first objective was to strength the first experiences of pre-school children. And we did it working on basic learning enhancing tools for educators and school staff through specific and innovative training and didactic ICT instruments. The IO1 intersects national policies and partner local experience and innovative approach. We also developed a MEET-platform- IO2-, providing a kit that enables teachers, educators, psychologists and parents to implement systematic cognitive and motivational enhancement through a series of games and games designed for children of the last year of their childhood school to prepare them in playful way to learning and, in case of difficulty or disability, suitable for children of early school years, who can use it as a tool for reviewing and consolidation. This alternative, ""non-conceptual"" program promotes a method to bring children into active computing skills. It stimulates the upgrading and recovery, in the case of older children, of basic skills needed to learn how to calculate.Several arithmetic exercises of different typology are proposed for complexity. The child will learn the strategies of mental calculus by instantly recognizing numerically large numbers, acquire numerical facts and math skills, fundamental to mathematics learning, in a gradual and motivating way, in a truly playful context that motivates and stimulates him to put his knowledge on the field.At the base of several exercises, there is the belief that arithmetical notions belong to an innate predisposition of the human mind for numbers and that the best instrument to learn them is their hands. Hands are the most effective and even the most accurate tool to represent the operational processes of the mind, precisely because of the fineness alignment, the distinction in cinquine and especially the motion of each finger, can be compared to a computer operating with a 'on-off' binary code: open-toed fingers closed. In the program, using a line of numbers simulating hands, the child can easily develop computing skills at an ever-increasing level, working intuitively with numbers understood as images. This increases the specific ability to read the quantities immediately, which goes beyond the initial phase of the count. For these features and the simplicity of its structure, the program is suitable for all children who are approaching maths and, especially, those with difficulty.We shared also best practices at a European Level achieving the development of innovation in ECEC method. Working transnationally offered a shared starting point in the definition and understanding of early learning processes to be replicate in other Countries. The objective of a European model of intervention for ECEC was to test in different EU contexts this new method. Working on interaction and integration concepts increased the value of the project meetings. During them the partners analyzed different children abilities, exploiting every child specificity without trying to standardize their specific competences."

Autism Spectrum Disorders-ASD is developmental disorder of which symptoms show up in the three years of life affecting the formation of social and communication skills. Autism shows itself in three fields of disabilities ; social interaction, language and communication,interest and behaviours. These disabilities cause social interaction problems, communication problems, limited or repetitive interest and behaviours. As a result of many studies conducted on the treatment of autism,it s proved that the best treatment method is education. Thus, the child’s education should begin as earliest as possible and it’s necessary to ensure the family participation in education as the most important place which learning takes place is home. Increasing the knowledge and skills the families who have an autistic child is not only important for child development but also for the parents’ psychological and social health.This project aims to create a support program meeting various needs of families with autistic child while gathering the developed specialities in different areas by the project partner institutions. The target audience are the families who have children with autism living in the project partner countries. The final beneficiaries of these studies which are made for the families are private educational institutions, diagnostic and treatment centers,the policy developer institutions special education field,teachers, nongovernmental organizations and the parents who are ready to create awareness for early diagnosis and intervention. The total duration of the project is 24 months that will be carried out in Turkey, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Romania and Austria.In the first meeting of this project, a needs assessment survey will be created with taking into consideration the opinions of 10 experts. Following the practice in each country ,a needs analysis report will be created and will be evaluated in the second meeting. Based on the prominent concerns in the needs analysis report, 5 different training modules will be prepared under the titles of education, health, social rights and entitlements, legal rights, and psychosocial support and 50 parenting education will be provided for each project partner. Evaluating the results of this application which targets %70 success an international conference will be held in Turkey. As project deliverables a booklet published in 5 languages, website, posters, brochures and conference are targeret. The visibility studies will be carried out continuously from the beginning and the project details will be broadcasted in five different media tool.

"The aim of the EARLYCODE project was up-skilling preschool teaching undergraduates on Computational Thinking and Coding Education and equipping them to inspire and teach children computational thinking principals utilizing effective, innovative and engaging methods. The project intended to improve capacity within the education sector to provide high quality computational thinking teaching at preschool level in the partner countries. The project specifically targeted higher education students studying to become preschool teachers. EARLYCODE project focused on developing teaching materials for Preschool Education undergraduates, lecturers and preschool teachers on computational thinking and introduction to coding.Pupils with computational thinking skills are better at understanding and using computer-based technologies, which are necessary for today’s world and the future. Enhancing the computational thinking and teaching coding, encourages pupils to create and develop new products instead of just being passive users of technology. Early childhood education from 4-6 years is a very critical period for the development of children before they start primary school. In a world, in which 21st century skills are linked to technology based innovations, fostering computational thinking skills will provide children to be effective decision makers, problem solvers and developers of the world. Considering the above mentioned aim and requirements, three main outputs were designed, developed and made available within EARLYCODE project:1. Computational Thinking & Coding for Children"" Course Curriculum: ""Computational Thinking & Coding for Children"" course is developed for Early Childhood teacher undergraduates to develop an understanding of the current needs in Computational Thinking (CT) and Coding in Early Childhood Education. 2. Handbook of Teaching Materials: Handbook of Teaching Materials include educational resources for fostering and developing computational thinking and introduction to coding. This handbook is explicitly designed for teachers who want to develop their knowledge in teaching Computational Thinking and Coding in Early Childhood Education and to obtain further tools and strategies to improve their teaching skills.3. Manual for Computational Thinking and Introduction to Coding: The Training Manual on Computational Thinking and Introduction to Coding for Preschool Education has been developed in order to guide trainers and lecturers to implement the course curriculum in Early Childhood Education programs. The project team consisted of Educational Technologists, Early Childhood Education specialists, Coding and Robotic experts, researchers and project experts from 5 different countries (Turkey, Italy, Latvia, Northern Ireland and Romania). This strong consortium of the project team resulted in high quality and innovative project results and also effective dissemination. All intellectual outputs were also translated in local languages of partner countries and disseminated.Participants of the project were undergraduates of Early Childhood Education. Project team reached a big number of undergraduates as target group. Three of the project partners are universities. University lecturers and preschool teachers were also included in the project process. Dissemination process, multiplier events and other local activities had a target group consisting of teacher candidates, preschool teachers, researchers, managers, lecturers and other stakeholders. EARLYCODE project intended to cover all relevant teaching materials in order to reach its aim and developed a comprehensive solution to the problem; ""How to improve children's computational thinking skills and teach them basic coding principles and how educate preschool teacher candidates for this purpose?"". In this point of view, materials and outputs were developed considering Early Childhood teacher undergraduates, lecturers, teachers and children. A lecturer of an Early Childhood Education program has now a curriculum to be implemented and a manual ragarding basic subject matter knowledge and also how to implement the curriculum. A teacher candidate is now able to attend the ""Computational Thinking & Coding for Children"" course in order to be ready for teaching coding and developing computational thinking skills of their future students/children. They will also benefit from ""Handbook of Teaching Materials"" which includes basic information, teaching materials, activity plans and other resources. An inservice preschool teacher can also take advantage of the Handbook of Teaching Materials. Interested universities/institutions are able to access project outputs. Some universities from partner countries have already started attempts to teach the course as elective in their Early Childhood Education programs. In addition, inservice preschool teachers have started to utilize project outputs. EARLYCODE team will go on providing support for stakeholders."

The emergence of the young as a distinct social group has brought an understanding that they have a key role to play in the digital society, as drivers of new behaviours and understandings. However, educational practice frequently fails to address the need to build their capacity to think and act autonomously and thus empower them to participate effectively and appropriately in society (a key objective of education). The CEPNET project focuses on this issue.The project builds a previous H2020 project (Ref. 727066) in which members of the consortium developed a framework for research in which children and young people could explore their perspectives and interests in relation to digital society, and a platform to communicate their perspectives to other stakeholders effectively. The work was very successful, and the approach was considered transformative in many of the contexts it was used in, empowering children and young people and developing a range of transversal competences. Though WYRED stood outside the curriculum, the work indicated a strong potential for use in education, and the objective of CEPNET is to develop the approach by adapting it for use in primary schools. This will be done in three ways. The approach involves a generative research cycle involving dialogue, participatory research and interpretation phases centred around and driven by children and young people, out of which a diverse range of outputs, critical perspectives and other insights emerged in relation to children and young people’s needs in the digital society. The first focus of CEPNET will be to adapt the approach to primary schools, since each phase has potential value for learning in schools. The dialogues awake enthusiasm and critical thinking, and the sense of a voice, the projects ground opinions, and give a depth and assurance to that voice, and the sharing of the results is a validation of that voice. However, the project used a generalist broad brush approach that always required adaptation to context. The first intellectual output of the project – IO1: THE CEPNET HANDBOOK – will cover this adapting the general approach to the specific needs of primary education. Each of the different dimensions of the approach will be fine-tuned to address the specific needs of primary students, creating a handbook for the use of the approach in primary education. This adaptation will be tested by implementing two pilot cycles of the new approach in the participating primary schools. Based on the results of this process, a definitive version of the handbook will be produced. The approach is applicable in a wide range of content domains, but in the pilots the focus will be on the topics of the UN Agenda 2030, grouping the SDGs into environmental, social and economic sustainability clusters.The second focus of CEPNET is on further development of the international dimension of the approach. Though there was international online activity in the previous project, it was not fully integrated, and it was seen that there was potential for this to greatly enrich the approach, especially the dialogues. The dialogues generate valuable insights about young people’s thinking and priorities, and since physical mobility is increasingly costly from climate and healthcare perspectives, and dialogue skills are an increasingly necessary part of education, the need to extend our capacity to dialogue online is vital. The motivational value of international online interaction has been shown by the previous experience of the partners, and a wide range of virtual mobility initiatives such as e-twinning. The focus in CEPNET will be on getting the most out of online dialogues in educational contexts, and the second output – IO2: THE CEPNET ONLINE DIALOGUE GUIDE, will be an online dialogue guide, which can be used separately or as part of the overall CEPNET approach for primary schools developed in IO1. It will be tested in parallel with the IO1 testing, linking the participating schools in online dialogues that complement the activity in each school. The final version of the guide will take those pilot experiences into account.The third area of focus of CEPNET looks especially towards sustainability. The approach as developed depended on external facilitation in each context since teacher training in the approach was not part of the original proposal. However, widespread adoption of the approach requires ensuring it can be used by schools independently of external advisors, which requires teacher training. The third output – IO3: CEPNET TEACHER TRAINING GUIDE will comprise a training approach and modules with activities and materials (for face to face or blended delivery) that can be used within initial teacher training or in in-service training, As part of the development of this output the guide and training modules will be tested with teachers from the participating schools, and in other schools beyond the consortium.