Kynfræðsla fyrir ungmenni með öðruvísi taugaþroska

Samkvæmt nýlegum rannsóknum greinist 1 af hverjum 89 með einhverfu í Evrópu (ASDEU, 2018) og 1 af hverjum 54 í Bandaríkjunum (CDC, 2020). Kennarar í skólum greina frá því að þeir hafi fengið takmarkaða fræðslu og upplifa sig oft ekki í stakk búnir til að vinna með börnum með frávik . Evrópusambandið hefur lagt áherslu á mikilvægi þess að þjálfa grunnfærni hjá þessum börnum og styðja við kennara í kennslu fatlaðra barna.

HEDY verkefnið – Kynfræðsla fyrir ungmenni með öðruvísi taugaþroska miðar að því að veita börnum og unglingum með frávik aðgengilegt námsefni í tengslum við kynheilbrigði og undirbúa þau þannig betur fyrir fullorðinsárin.

Verkefnið er styrkt af ERASMUS KA. Markmið samstarfsverkefnisins er að deila reynslu og þekkingu milli landa og innleiða nýjar aðferðir, KA201 – Samstarfsverkefni fyrir skóla. Verkefnið hófst 1. október 2020 og var 24 mánuði í vinnslu.

Verkefnið er byggt á samstarfi fimm aðila – Romanian Angel Appeal Foundation (RAA), Autism-Europe (AE), Ráðgjafar- og greiningarstöðvar (RGR), IASIS, Inclusive Education School Center Nr. 2, (CSEI) Ploieşti auk stuðnings frá 8 samstarfsskólum. HEDY stefnir  að því að ná til yfir 1000 kennara og í gegnum þá til enn stærri hóps barna og unglinga sem eru með öðruvísi taugaþroska.

Námsefnið skiptist í 4 kafla og er rafrænt, gagnvirkt og aðgengilegt. Námsefnið er til á fimm tungumálum: Ensku, frönsku, rúmensku, íslensku og grísku. Börn og unglingar munu fá leiðbeiningar í að öðlast grunnfærni í sjálfsumhirðu undir handleiðslu þjálfaðra kennara.

Markmið

1. Efla þekkingu og færni kennara til að kenna börnum með öðruvísi taugaþroska leiðir til að læra að bera ábyrgð á eigin heilsufari.
2. Bæta aðgengi kennara að námsefni fyrir þennan nemendahóp.

Samstarfsaðilar

• Romanian Angel Appeal Foundation (RAA)
• Autism-Europe (AE)
• State Diagnostic and Counselling Centre
• IASIS
• Inclusive Education School Center Nr. 2, (CSEI) Ploieşti

Megin niðurstöður verkefnisins

Kennarar (800) í almennum skólum og sérskólum í Rúmeníu, Grikklandi, Íslandi og Belgíu munu bæta færni sína í að kenna börnum og unglingum með öðruvísi taugaþroska um kynheilbrigði.

Starfsmenn hagsmunasamtaka, skóla og annarra menntastofnanna munu öðlast betri skilning á verkefninu og geta dreift efninu til fleiri aðila.

Þá hafa þegar 18 ungmenni úr 8 samstarfsskólum  tekið þátt í að forprófa rafræna námsefnið.

Námsefnið skiptist í fjóra kafla.

• Kafli 1 – Þroski og kynþroski barna og unglinga með öðruvísi taugaþroska 
• Kafli 2 – Hreinlæti
• Kafli 3 – Kynheilbrigði fyrir ungmenni með öðruvísi taugaþroska
• Kafli 4 – Lög og stefnur í tengslum við kynheilbrigði barna með öðruvísi taugaþroska

• Ilias Michail Rafail

  is a Counselor/Psychologist (PhD.c at Panteion University and BA at University of Athens) and an Adult Educator (M.Ed at Hellenic Open University). He works - among others, as a Scientific Responsible/Training Director at IASIS NGO, as a Training Director at KEK IEKEP and as a Project Manager in National and European Training and Consulting Programs.
• Eric Kota

  Eric Kota is a Psychologist, Trainer and Youth Worker. He works as a Researcher and Designer of European project of various funded frameworks (Erasmus+, CERV, AMIF, EuropeAid & HORIZON) in the research and development department of AmKE IASIS in the fields of education, social inclusion, digital transformation and sustainable development.
• Thelma Rún van Erven

  Graduated as a psychologist (cand.psych) from the University of Iceland in 2017 and she has been working at the Counselling and Diagnosis Centre (CDC) since then at the Division of Children and Adolescence
• María Jónsdóttir

  Has a MA degree in social work (2010) and certification as a specialist working with disabled people (2016). She has also certification as a Peers® and Keep safe® trainer

Ilias Michail Rafail

Ilias Michail Rafail is a Counselor/Psychologist (PhD.c at Panteion University and BA at University of Athens) and an Adult Educator (M.Ed at Hellenic Open University). He works – among others, as a Scientific Responsible/Training Director at IASIS NGO, as a Training Director at KEK IEKEP and as a Project Manager in National and European Training and Consulting Programs. He is a member of the European Union’s Experts Group for Education and Vocational Training (DG Education & Training, EC) and is accredited as a trainer of trainers by the National Authorities of several nations’ „SALTO“ European programs. He is the director of research and development (R&D) at IASIS NGO and oversees the creation and execution of national and European programs.

Ilias has extensive experience in Adult Education, as a trainer in various European Programs for the last 25 years, with topics related to Empowerment, Team Building, Negotiation, Boundaries, Orientation, Relationships and Counseling (indicative).

Eric Kota

Eric Kota is a Psychologist, Trainer and Youth Worker. He works as a Researcher and Designer of European project of various funded frameworks (Erasmus+, CERV, AMIF, EuropeAid & HORIZON) in the research and development department of AmKE IASIS in the fields of education, social inclusion, digital transformation and sustainable development.

He holds a First-Class Honours degree (BSc Hons)  in Psychology  from the University of East London from where his thesis entitled „Head Rotation as an Indicator on Visuo-Spatial Short Term and Working Memory Tasks“ which attempted to “unite” the research of topics of Cognitive Psychology and Computational Systems, was marked as a 1st class standard. He also holds a diploma in Digital Transformation from the University of the Aegean and is currently studying International Business Management (MBA Global) at the University of Derby.

Eric also organized and conducted more than 30 training workshops in over 8 countries.

Thelma Rún van Erven

Thelma Rún van Erven graduated as a psychologist (cand.psych) from the University of Iceland in 2017. She has been working at the Counselling and Diagnosis Centre (CDC) since then at the Division of Children and Adolescence. In her work she participates in various activities, including diagnostic work, counselling in schools, social skills training and having lectures about autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability (ID) and sexual health. She has a certification as a Peers® trainer and has taught at Keep Safe®. She also runs courses for young people with ASD and ID about sexual health. Thelma Rún has her own practice as well where she treats adolescence with ASD and ID who are dealing with anxiety and depression among other things. She also works for The Icelandic Autistic Society with teenagers with ASD.

María Jónsdóttir

María Jónsdóttir has a MA degree in social work (2010) and certification as a specialist working with disabled people (2016).  She has also certification as a Peers® and Keep safe® trainer. She has experience as a social worker in a non-profit organization that provides service and accommodation for people with learning disabilities and people with autism (from 1997-2012). Since 2013 she has been working at the Counselling and Diagnosis Centre (CDC) and participated in various types of activities, including family support, diagnostic work, and accumulating knowledge in the CDC on support for schools and parents providing sex education for young people with autism (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID). Her dissertation at the University of Iceland (2010) was about sex education in Iceland for people with ID. María has been a part time teacher in social work at the University of Iceland and published scholarly articles on sexual health and autism. She has published workbooks about sexuality for disabled people and  run courses for young people ASD and ID about sexual health. She maintains among others webpage about sexual health for people with ID and ASD; www.leikni.is.

Romanian Angel Appeal Foundation (RAA) is a non-governmental organization working since 1991 for improving the quality of life and averting the risk of discrimination and social exclusion of children and young people in need, affected by chronic conditions, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). RAA is providing direct medical and social services, influencing health, social and educational policies, conducting research and providing support in professional development for a variety of specialists such as teachers, health and social work specialists, psychologists and volunteers through training.

RAA supported over 2000 children & families facing ASD, over 1200 people in need to be treated for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, more than 18,000 people from vulnerable groups with limited access to HIV/AIDS and TB prevention services.

RAA is one of the main training providers in the field of medical, social and educational services and one of the pioneers in using new technologies and innovation in training or non-formal education.

In 2000, RAA was the first organisation developing e-learning content for continuous medical education. RAA has developed more than 30 training packages for different professional categories (physicians, teachers, psychologists & social workers) training for over 10,000 professionals.

In 2006, RAA developed an innovative non formal educational tool for peer-educators, an online game introducing in a friendly manner health education topic to teenagers. Since 2013, RAA has been developing training programs addressing integration of children with disabilities reaching more than 1,500 professionals. A special focus was made in all projects on counselling and training parents of children with disabilities. RAA has also targeted through its project adults from vulnerable groups providing counselling, training and certification for over 2,000 women qualified as baby-sitters. RAA has launched in 2017 teachASD.com, an e-learning platform for school teachers addressing topics related to integration of children with educational needs reaching over 5,000 professionals.

Since 2006, RAA has hosted and organized international study visits for various stakeholders and specialists from the areas of HIV, tuberculosis and ASD. RAA also conducted a series of researches on ASD families service needs, quality of social services provided, perception of ASD in general population.

Autism-Europe (AE)  is an international non-profit organisation established in 1983 and recognised under Belgian law. Its main objective is to advance the rights of autistic people and their families and to help them improve their quality of life.

It ensures effective liaison among almost 90 member autism organisations from 38 European countries, including 26 Member States of the European Union, governments and European and international institutions.
Autism-Europe plays a key role in raising public awareness, and in influencing the European decision-makers on all issues relating to the rights of autistic people.

Self-advocates and families play a central role in our organisation to ensure that the views and interests of persons with autism are adequately reflected in our work.

Autism-Europe is recognised by the European institutions as the voice of autistic people and their families in Europe. To maximise its impact on the European Union’s policies, Autism-Europe also works in strategic coalitions with organisations that share the same concerns and goals.

Autism-Europe is also regularly consulted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and cooperates with the United Nations (UN). Autism-Europe also enjoys a participative status (for non-governmental organisations) with the Council of Europe and in July 2002 lodged a collective complaint with the European Committee of Social Rights, becoming the first disability NGO to undertake such action.

Hlutverk Ráðgjafar- og greiningarstöðvar er að tryggja að börn með alvarlegar þroskaskerðingar sem leitt geta til fötlunar síðar á ævinni fái greiningu, ráðgjöf og önnur úrræði sem bæta lífsgæði þeirra.

Ráðgjafar- og greiningarstöð er miðlæg þjónustu- og þekkingarmiðstöð sem starfar á þverfaglegum grunni og sinnir börnum að 18 ára aldri hvar sem þau búa á landinu. Stofnunin starfar samkvæmt lögum nr. 83 frá árinu 2003. Hlutverk hennar er meðal annars að annast greiningu og ráðgjöf vegna barna með víðtækar þroskaskerðingar, sinna fræðilegum rannsóknum á þessu sviði og veita börnum með óvenjuflóknar eða sjaldgæfar fatlanir langtímaeftirfylgd. Öflun og miðlun þekkingar um fatlanir og þroskaskerðingar og fræðsla um helstu íhlutunarleiðir er enn fremur meðal hlutverka stofnunarinnar.

Starfsemin er skipulögð á grundvelli heildstæðrar þjónustu og fjölskyldumiðaðrar nálgunar. Foreldrar eru hvattir til að taka virkan þátt í þjónustuferlinu og að eiga hlutdeild í ákvörðunum er varða þjónustu fyrir barn og fjölskyldu. Áður en barni er vísað á Ráðgjafar- og greiningarstöð þarf að vera búið að meta þroska þess og færni (frumathugun). Algengustu ástæður tilvísunar eru grunur um einhverfu og skyldar raskanir, þroskahömlun og hreyfihamlanir.

IASIS NGO is a non-governmental, non-profit organization active in the field of Social Inclusion, Mental Health and De-institutionalization, which actively participates in the psychiatric reform promoted by the Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity and the European Union. IASIS has an official registration as Private Non-Profit Organization and a Special Registration in Voluntary Non-Governmental Organizations Lists handled by the General Directorate of Welfare. The organization also has a Management Competence System certified by the Special Service / Department of Health and Social Solidarity. Organization’s main objective is to provide psychosocial support and education to people who either belong to the range of or are at risk of exclusion, and to adult learners in the humanitarian field.

The Inclusive Education School Center Nr. 2, (CSEI) in Ploieşti educates children/ students with special educational needs and provides support for educational services through itinerant teachers to students and teachers in mainstream, public schools in the community and county. CSEI has established as mission: to promote a modern, open and flexible special education, able to ensure access to education, recovery and integration for all children with special educational needs; to provide high quality, flexible support educational services, appropriate to the needs of each child from the perspective of life skills and competencies in school performance, to students integrated in mainstream education.

The specialized services offered by the school:

• Special and specialized education for children with disabilities
• Compensation through specific therapies
• Psycho-pedagogical evaluation, diagnosis, school and professional orientation through Internal Commission for complex evaluation
• Educational and therapeutic-recovery assistance
• Information and advice for teachers
• Psycho-pedagogical research and elaboration of specialized studies
• Methodological-scientific support in the field of inclusive education for teachers in mainstream schools