"<< Objectives >>Strategic partnership of two schools for education of students with disabilities from Serbia and Romania.Improving the inclusive model of primary education in Serbia and Romania.Development of teacher competencies in regular primary schools in Serbia and Romania, for work in an inclusive educational model.Development of competencies of teachers-special educators from the School ""11. Maj"" -Serbia and the Special School from Cluj, Romania.<< Implementation >>Activities to research the expectations of teachers in regular schools from a guide for working with students with disabilities for teachers of regular primary schoolsWe will implement the activity of strategic partnership in the development of the content of the guideActivity of preparing a guide in three languages (Serbian, Romanian, English)Activity of preparation and printing of guidesGuide promotion activity in Serbia and Romania<< Results >>Improving the competencies of regular school teachers for recognizing students with disabilitiesImproving the knowledge and skills of teachers for direct work with students with disabilitiesDevelopment of a methodological approach in working with students with disabilities in regular schoolsRaising teachers awareness of the needs and specifics of students with disabilitiesCreating better conditions for students with disabilities in the regular school systemPrevention of early school leaving"

Worldwide, one in every 1,000 children is deaf, in Europe-28 that represents close to 500,000 deaf people who are trying to gain access to knowledge and employment. However, this community suffers from a lack of inclusion: 80% of the deaf are illiterate and have a lot of difficulties to find a job (the employment rate is 71% for people with slight deafness, 59% with middle deafness, and only 34% for people with deep deafness). This shows the importance of instilling a wide breadth of knowledge early on, to ensure that deaf children have as much opportunity to receive knowledge and information and to become responsible citizens. However, the dissemination of existing information adapted to the deaf audience is seriously deficient for deaf adults and dramatically non-existent for deaf children. This prevents deaf people from accessing information and this is even more critical at school, where teachers are unable to use pedagogical content adapted to their deaf students. Existing material uses content too rich in text (with sentences often long and complicated to be easily understood by deaf children) and videos are containing voice-overs and subtitles. This has the effect of demotivating many deaf children in school learning. This has the effect of demotivating many deaf pupils in school learning. Open-Sign project aims to develop the first e-magazine adapted to deaf children. We focus on pupils between 7 to 13 years old. Indeed, it is the age range when children learn how to read and write and the needs become crucial. With pedagogical elements that are easily understood by deaf children, we want to support teachers to nurture children's interest in school learning, to open deaf children to the world, to arouse their curiosity, to develop their knowledge and to give them the means to communicate with their environment, including their family. What then allow them to improve their learning performance and to enhance their access to abstract concepts and reading potentialities. The e-magazine will be proposed in two different and complementary media: • a web site to gather all the available contents (combined with a search engine) • an enriched digital magazine with a structured and editorialized content, sent through subscription and readable offline. Information will be proposed through written texts (in English and in the national languages of the different partners) and videos using sign language (with a specific usage of the International Sign - IS). We intend to use interactive potentialities of web site and e-book to propose unprecedented content for deaf children (culture, educational games and activities to make by themselves), along with educational sheets than can be used by teachers and family members: • 6 Thematic topics (e.g. Dinosaurs, Ancient Egypt, What is a democracy? …) • 15 Educational games using 3 different game engines (e.g. Memory, MCQ video…) • 32 Manual activities videos made with pupils (e.g. cooking, scientific experience, creative activities, magic trick…) The Open-Sign project brings together 6 complementary specialized partners: • Les Apprimeurs – Leader (Paris, France), a small enterprise specialized in ebook creation • Media’Pi (Paris, France), an association created by deaf people specialized in news content for deaf people • SignFuse (Antwerp, Belgium), a small enterprise created by deaf people specialized in web development adapted to the deaf community • Yomma (Berlin, Germany), a small enterprise created by deaf people specialized in graphic design and videos • Istituto dei Sordi (Turin, Italy), one the oldest deaf school of Italy, founded in 1814, working with about 250 deaf students, from kindergarten to university • Liceul Tehnologic Special pentru Deficienti de Auz (Cluj-Napoca, Romania), an institute with over 125 years of experience in the field of education rehabilitation of children with hearing disabilities, working with about 200 deaf students, from kindergarten to high school Next to these partners, Open-Sign already gathered interest from 6 other institutes that become associated partners, located in Italy, Spain, Turkey, Hungary and Portugal. Deaf children between 7 to 13 are estimated at 37,000 in EU-28, 16,000 in the 5 countries of the partners (France, Germany, Italy, Romania and Belgium), and 30,000 in the 9 countries of partners and associated partners (including Spain, Portugal, Hungary and Turkey). During the program, we aim at gathering: • 2,000 ebook subscribers • 5,000 Facebook fans • 300 public bodies, associations, schools, educational institutions, public libraries • 15 contributors who will create new contents Open-Sign is designed to function independently at the end of the project. By developing an easy-to-use platform and by providing detailed explanatory sheets explaining step by step how to create and upload autonomously new contents, we expect contributors and users to appropriate the platform and make it live.

"The development of the skills of young people with disabilities who are very handicapped in their exchanges and who have specific communication needs, whether they are deaf with associated impairments or who have complex speech disorders without hearing loss, is at the heart of the concerns of families and professionals. who accompany them. In fact, the lack of a suitable means of communication can lead to isolation or the appearance of behavioral problems and thereby further complicate the disability situation. This project has the ambition to focus on this complex population, poorly identified that requires specific expertise and an adaptation of the entire entourage. It is based on an approach to access communication and language using media: situational drawings, pictograms .... The foundation of this approach is anchored in mutual trust, mutual recognition that includes the credit we give the child to have things to say and to share with us. It is therefore not a matter of setting up a simple alternative communication method. But rather to share a way of being that is based on a conception of exchange with a child in great difficulty of communication. It sets the first steps in the construction of a multimodal training device for professionals and families. It aims to model the approach to access to communication and language in a European context, develop the pedagogical tools associated with the approach and develop a repository of skills of professionals using the approach.The transfer of the approach will be implemented during experiential training sessions in Madrid, Cluj and Stockholm. It will concern three groups of five young people and the professionals of the multidisciplinary team who accompany them.The partners mobilized around this issue (the Robert Laplane National Resource Center, the Laboratory of Applied Psychology and Ergonomics (LaPEA) of the Paris Descartes University, Centro edocativo de Ponce de Leon, Liceu tehnologic special pentru deficienţi of Auz Cluj -Napoca, Comparative Research Network) will realize:. Modeling an approach to access to communication and language. A lexicon, tool for contextualization of the key definitions of the project. A skills framework for professionals working with young people and adults with disabilities and with specific communication needs. An assessment of the impact on youth of the quantitative and qualitative approach to language access that will be developed with the support of two Canadian consultants.. The formalization of tools for the development of the skills of the professionals accompanying these young people will be supported by the expertise of the CRN.. A strategy for disseminating intellectual productions. A set of policy recommendations regarding the needs and potential uses of the approach, to be defined by the partners based on their own experiences and results of project activitiesA wider diffusion of the approach for access to communication and language will thus be possible. The teaching tools will support the resource persons initially and then a multimodal training device will be built as part of a new European partnership so that professionals ""resources"" and families ""resources"" in all territories are able to intervene as soon as possible with young people with specific communication needs and all the actors in their environment."

"Worldwide, one in every 1,000 students is deaf, in Europe-28 that represents close to 500,000 deaf people who are trying to gain access to knowledge & employment. However, this community suffers from a lack of inclusion: 80% of the deaf are illiterate & have a lot of difficulties to find a job (the employment rate is 71% for people with slight deafness, 59% with middle deafness, & only 34 % for people with deep deafness). This shows the importance of instilling a wide breadth of knowledge early on, to ensure that STUDENTS-YOUTH WITH DEAFNESS or HEARING IMPAIRMENT have as much opportunity to receive knowledge & information & to become responsible citizens.However, the dissemination of existing information adapted to the deaf audience is seriously deficient for deaf adults & dramatically non-existent for deaf students-youth. This prevents deaf people from accessing information & this is even more critical at school, where teachers are unable to use pedagogical content adapted to their deaf students.Existing material uses content too rich in text (with sentences often long & complicated to be easily understood by deaf children) & videos are containing voice-overs & subtitles. This has the effect of demotivating many deaf children in school learning. This has the effect of demotivating many deaf pupils in school learning.deAf DigitAl PlaTform (ADAPT) project aims to develop the first e-magazine adapted to deaf adolescents. We focus on pupils between 13 to 21 years old. Indeed, it is the age range when students learn how to become independent & how to advocate & the needs become crucial.With pedagogical elements that are easily understood by deaf students, we want to support teachers to nurture students' interest in school learning, to open deaf adolescents to the world, to arouse their curiosity, to develop their knowledge & to give them the means to communicate with their environment, including their family. What then allow them to improve their learning performance & to enhance their access to abstract concepts & reading potentialities.The e-magazine will be proposed in two different & complementary media:•a web site to gather all the available contents (combined with a search engine)•an enriched digital magazine with a structured & editorialized content, sent through subscription & readable offline.Information will be proposed through written texts (in English & in the national languages of the different partners) & videos using sign language (with a specific usage of the International Sign IS).We intend to use interactive potentialities of web site & e-book to propose unprecedented content for deaf adolescents (culture, educational games & activities to make by themselves), along with educational sheets than can be used by teachers & family members: •6 Thematic topics (e.g. History, Biology, Human Rights, introduction to STEAM…)•12 Educational games using 3 different game engines (e.g. Memory, MCQ video…)•36 Manual activities videos (e.g. cooking, scientific experience, creative activities, magic trick, discovering sports rules…)The ADAPT project brings together 6 complementary specialized partners; members of HIPEN (the European Network for Professionals working with People with Hearing Problems) :• ""11th May"" is one of the oldest state special education institution in Serbia and Yugoslavia, and the fourth special educational school for children with hearing and speech impairments.• Since more than 200 years, Istituto dei Sordi di Torino - IST is specializing in providing a wide range of services and activities to people who are deaf, hard of hearing or deafblind.• Liceul Tehnologic Special pentru Deficienti de Auz (Cluj-Napoca, Romania), an institute that works with about 200 deaf students, from kindergarten to high school.• Specjalny Osrodek Szkolono-Wychowawczy dla Nieslyszacych (Kraków, Poland) an institution that educates young people who are deaf & hearing impaired.• Educational Center for Deaf & Hard of Hearing of Lithuania (Vilnius, Lithuania), a public educational institution providing education from pre-school to upper secondary stages for the hearing impaired students.- GAUDEM, a school which embraces special & mainstream education for deaf & hearing students for over 40 years.Deaf students between 13 to 21 are estimated at 37,000 in EU-28, 16,000 in the 6 countries of the partners (Serbia, Lithuania, Italy, Romania, Spain &Poland). During the program, we aim at gathering:•2,000 ebook subscribers•5,000 Facebook fans•300 public bodies, associations, schools, educational institutions, public libraries•15 contributors who will create new contentsADAPT is designed to function independently at the end of the project. By developing an easy-to-use platform & by providing detailed explanatory sheets explaining step by step how to create & upload autonomously new contents, we expect contributors & users to appropriate the platform& make it live."

In our society, deaf children are confronted to the problem of communication with all their surrounding. The technology of cochlear implant gives the possibility to deaf children to access to the comprehension of hearing people and so also to access to oral language to be understood. This technology is used all around Europe, not at the same level, because of the cost, but more and more children can benefit from the cochlear implants. Specialised institutions for deaf ensure the rehabilitation process necessary to improve the comprehension and oral language (multidisciplinary team composed of ENT specialists, neuropsychologists, speech therapists, social workers, etc. )In the same time, the development of this technology has revealed that 30% of the beneficaries can not develop oral language, and so revealed neurolinguistic disorders. It is very difficult to assess and to quantify some of these disorders. The work of specialists requires significant multidisciplinary cooperation and regular observations. This project will enable this collaborative work to give at EU level a better understanding of practices, explorations and materials used in the support of these children. Even though the objective is to produce a protocol of assessment and rehabilitation for a multidisciplinary team to improve the support of these children, this step of explorations is very important to get the good knowledge of the situation in Europe. We will develop two main times of training for participants, one of this event will be to understand the explorations of all the partners and to introduce the question of language disorders to define a consent on the definition. The 2nd one will be more focused on clinical cases, giving a good comprehension of the situation. That will provide a presentation of practices and explorations at EU level, with the implementation of a canadian partner, who get better results in the development of oral language. Their practicies and the North American situation will provide an added-value in the comprehension. In Montreal, Institut Raymond Dewar which follows the children with cochlear implants has pointed out only 3 situations of problems of development of oral language among the 108 deaf children implanted between 2015 and 2018. Such results are great opportunities for our partnership to know more about what is working practically. 20 participants will attend each training event - they will be representative of the question in their organisations and there will be ENT specialists, neuropsychologists, psychologists, social workers, speech therapists, specialised teachers, all the professionals which form the multidisciplinary team in the support of these children. The outcomes of the project will give the possibility to continue in the development of a protocol of assessment and rehabilitation for professionals (participants mentioned) working with these children, in a development of innovation, for the benefit of deaf children and their parents.