<< Objectives >>Our objective is to stimulate the reading motivation of blind children with the result that the reading skills of Braille readers will also improve. In times of increasing digitalization, blind children have the opportunity to use software that reads digital texts and books. Assistant Technology is an useful inclusion tool for blind students. As teachers we are looking for a healthy and succesful balance between auditory and tactile learning for blind children in the elementary school age 5 to 1<< Implementation >>Together with our Erasmus partner we will exchange inspiration, didactic courses and actions for starting a library and reading corners for blind and visually impaired elementary school kids. We set up comfortable and accessible reading corners within the school. We are also developing a parenting course to learn Braille in order to stimulate students in their social environment. Workshops are organized to train teachers optimally in the use of digital aids and reading software for blind users.<< Results >>We measure the results of the project both qualitatively and quantitatively. Reading skills and time needed to read a text is measured by performing standardized tests. Results will compared with tests taken prior to the project and repeated every year. Motivation can't be measured with tests but wil result in an intrinsic behavioral change: reading at home, borrowing books from the new library, voluntarily reading during througout the day, the use of the new reading corners created at school.

<< Objectives >>With this project, we collaborate with 4 European partners from Special Education. Together we develop a digital guide with activities to stimulate the development of children with severe mental disabilities. By visiting all the partner schools, we experience these activities and practice them with the children of the guestschool. As a result, we learn substantively from each other and each other's organization, with the ultimate goal of improving our competences and professionalizing the teams.<< Implementation >>We start with an exploratory visit where the coordinators concretise the further course of the project.Then we will visit each partner school once, to get to know each other's organization. Each time, three activities, typical for the school's own organization, are offered. We will test these, assess them, discuss and adapt them to our own target groups. We are going to talk about the education systems of the different European partners: compare and share ideas for our own policy frameworks.<< Results >>As an end result, we create a digital guide that is accessible to everyone in Europe to use in the day-to-day school and classroom organization for children with a severe mental disability.Through the discussions between the partners, we think critically about content and approach. This way we get more competent and work on professionalization of the teams. With this renewed knowledge we further encourage the development of our students.

<< Objectives >>VI children lack access to a wide range of literature needed in order to be able to build awareness of the world around them and thus achieve emotional, linguistic and intellectual levels. Tacticos aims to provide high quality and well tested guidelines for designing and producing cost–effective tactile books and tactile illustrations and improve (inter)national cooperation in this field. By doing so we aim to foster the development of literacy and concept building skills of VI children.<< Implementation >>The 3 essential project activities are:1. Writing of guidelines for producing high quality, cost-effective tactile books and illustrations, preceded by preliminary research and setting up of methodology and terminology2. Testing the guidelines. A set of tactile books and illustrations will be produced according to the guidelines and will be tested with VI children. 3. Dissemination activities including training program for VI professionals and caretakers for ‘reading’ tactile materials<< Results >>The main results of this project are:-Desktop research -Glossary of terms -Guidelines for designing and producing tactile illustrations and books-Recommendation report for cooperation VI experts and printing houses-Testing plan and evaluation report-1-3 tactile book -20-30 tactile illustrations for concept development -Dissemination plan, project website-Training programme and tools for VI professionals and parents/caretakers of VI children-Network campaign-Promotion events

The SKATE project aims to impact on the quantity and quality of inclusive early childhood education in the countries involved in the project (and beyond), by generating knowledge on the appropriate use of digital and mostly innovative technologies in early childhood education and by disseminating this knowledge through multiplier events and publications. An important starting point is the growing presence of children with disabilities or emerging disabilities in mainstream pre-primary school. The project responds to European ECEC teachers’ needs to be supported in gearing innovative technology as resource for inclusive education and the Skate project will deploy innovative resources from the field experience of Assistive Technology centres, EU and national policies fostering the take up of digital technologies in inclusive education, and the wide experience of participating organisations. Educators and teachers have a key role to play in responding to these challenges, but very often there are barriers (lack of knowledge & digital skills among teachers, lack of resources, fear for change, consolidated practice vs complexity of innovation) preventing the development of meaningful experiences with technology in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Combining these aspects, the SKATE (Skills & Knowledge on (Assistive) Technology in EarlyChildhood Inclusive Education) project will be pursuing and achieving the following objectives:-To foster new skills and knowledge of teachers/educators for the appropriate use of technology/digital solutions to create an increasingly inclusive learning environment (but not technology as a goal in itself and at all cost);-To increase the quality of ECEC as delivered by the partners and other schools by promoting on an as needs basis early intervention with appropriate assistive technology for children with special needs or at risk of exclusion (leaving no one behind).SKATE target groups are:- Pre-primary school teachers/educators from mainstream education in Belgium, Italy, Cyprus and Republic of North Macedonia- Responsible pedagogical managers of pre-primary schools.- Children with disabilities and their families and professionals in health and social care.- The wider European community for the promotion of inclusive education.The partnership composed by two Universities, two assistive technology providers and one NGO working within a network of ECEC services providers will develop and implement activities and researchs leading to the definition of guidelines, learning programmes and toolkits for educators, teachers, school managers and parents. Following a state of the art analysis and an assessment of needs at all levels and among primary stakeholders (IO1), technology enabled strategies and tools will be designed and developed for the empowerment of European pre-primary schools and their staff, the whole group of children as well as single learners within special needs. This will involve the deployment of smart toys, sensor technology, simulated environments, robots, kinematics, etc., as well as specific assistivetechnologies, such as those based on eye gazing, voice control and movement tracking. The toolkit (IO2) will be helpful to those that wish to increase the level ofinclusion and improve the general educational service performance and its readiness for the future.SKATE will further develop a competency framework for those excelling in technology enhanced inclusive education and learning programmes that, informed and guided by the framework, respond to identified needs (IO3). The project will realise then the following Outputs:1)Mapping, assessment and innovative approaches on inclusive technology for ECEC2)Guidelines Inclusive classrooms for ECEC teachers3)Toolkit: competency framework, learning programmes and assessment methodologiesThe implementation of the activities and outputs will be able to reach the following impacts:• Professionalisation of staff as a key element of creating an attractive, sustainable and highly competent profession.• Social inclusion: narrowing skill gaps between children of different backgrounds (including also children with special needs)• Promoting the professionalisation of ECEC staff in delivering assistive technology • Developing policies to attract, educate enhance qualified staff in ECEC• Moving towards ECEC systems which integrate care and education, and improve quality, equity and system efficiency• Facilitating the transition of SEN children between family and education/care, and between levels of education• Ensuring quality assurance: designing coherent, well-coordinated pedagogical frameworks,• Involving key stakeholdersThe long-term sustainability of activities and products is ensured by the acquisition and deployment of outputs and methodologies by participating organisations, involved ECEC services and stakeholders. All the products will be freely available as OER.

Project We learn to live in a digital world, demonstrates the importance of digital technologies in the development, communication and inclusion of students with disabilities. The project were involved six schools from six European countries - The Czech Republic, Finland, Latvia, Greece, Belgium and Portugal. There were special schools and inclusive schools among us, the experienced in European projects as well as novices. But all together, we werified, that modern technology allows SEN children to do things that were not previously possible for them. And that SEN students are also children of a digital world and they can benefit from it. We learned from each other and helped our pupils to mitigate the impact of disabilities through ICT. Each of the six involved countries is an expert in some area. During the LTT activities introduced to other partners our strenght at using some technology for education. We became more familiar with several usefull ICT tools and used them with our students to fulfill project outputs. We learned to produce and integrate multimedial e-books to teaching, how to use digital tools to create music, art and how to share the results online. We involved gamification in the teaching educational process and tried the basics of programming. The children worked with a quizezzes on the realities of partner countries. All these activities helped the students to develop their potential and to involve better with peers.The many teachers from partners school have converted the learned activities into their work with pupils and the results are shared and published with the local and wider communities. Our experience are available to all the interested parties and public through newsletters and project digital portfolio. The result of the project are digital books that describe the possibilities and using of the selected digital tools in teaching, supplemented by specific examples of good practice.