Digital technology helping children with autism and intellectual / learning disabilities

From 22.02.2017 until 26.02.2017, in the city of Konya, Turkey, was held an international conference on the topic of “Digital Technologies in Aid of Children with Autism and Intellectual/Educational Difficulties”

Beside the representatives of partnership organizations from Turkey, Spain and Britain, in the conference took part 135 teachers from Turkey and 24 guests from Bulgaria, Italy, Kosovo, Romania and Slovenia. Bulgaria was represented by 8 specialists from a vast professional field – I.T., school psychologists and special teachers, speech therapists, social and museum workers. Karin Dom’s representative was our speech therapist, Petya Vicheva.

Good practices and internet pages were presented about the work with children with autism and intellectual/educational difficulties. Specialists from different countries shared their international experience on the current problems. Valuable practices in applying digital technologies in training and support of the children were discussed. One of the discussed matters was the connection between child-family-institution. The professionals gained useful experience on applying the modern technologies in education, socializing and integration of young people into society.

Dr. Herarldo Hererra from the University of Valencia, Spain, presented an innovative report on the subject of “The Role of Technologies in Aid of Children with Autism and Intellectual/Educational Difficulties”. The report provoked a vast discussion on the current problems.

For a vaster scale of applying the innovations, the international project’s team engaged to make the results available by April 2017, by publishing them in the educational portal smart-asd.eu.

The conference is an event, part of the project “Increasing Communication in Studying, with Tablets, Smartphones and Watches, for Students with Autistic Spectrum Disorders and/or Educational Difficulties”. Project’s beneficiaries are: Province Directorate of National Education Konya, Turkey, University of Bath, Britain and University of Valencia, Spain. Eight more universities and centers from Turkey and Spain are associated partners of the project, that is being financed by the European Commission with “Erasmus+” KA2 program – Collaboration for Innovations and Exchange of good Practices, a strategic partnership for school education. Manager of the Bulgarian group was Mrs. Shurelova – I.T. and coordinator on “Erasmus+” program.

The professionals created valuable connections between themselves during the informal meetings, for applying the presented good practices in school as well inside the family environment.