The importance of high quality early childhood education is reflected in a high volume of joint reflection on policies and programmes between the European Commission and the Member States. Since the 2011 Council conclusions on early childhood education, there is an increasing emphasis on the importance children's personal development. The Eurydice Key Data on Early Childhood Education and Care in Europe 2014 report, published jointly with Eurostat, contributes to informing policy efforts on early childhood education and analyses issues which are important for the development of quality services through European policy co-operation, such as access, quality assurance, affordability, parental involvement and measures to support disadvantaged children. It aims to provide insights into what constitutes high quality early childhood education through internationally comparable indicators. It covers 32 countries and 37 education systems. “Speech and Language Pathology” is both a scientific domain and an autonomous profession. As a science, it is at the intersection of medical, linguistic, educational and psychological sciences and focuses on etymology, assessment (screening, identification, evaluation, and diagnosis) and intervention (promotion, prevention, counselling, treatment, consultation, management, rehabilitation and education) of communication and swallowing disorders. A speech disorder refers to a problem with the actual production of sounds (articulation, fluency, voice ) and a language disorder refers to a problem understanding or putting words together to communicate ideas (receptive, expressive cognitive-communication). Literacy problems are still a real challenge in the EU: - A large number of children have problems learning their native languages - Early speech and language problems cause later language problems (e.g. with literacy) - Language proficiency has an impact on educational and lifelong success in socialization The project will aim to create speech and language pathology online tool for kindergarten and primary school teachers with multiple sound checks and it will be different for each language. Main objectives of the "SpeelPath4Teachers" project are: 1. Increasing educational chance of children with speech and language impairments/problems by creating pre-assessment mechanism to use by teachers at kindergarten and primary schools. 2. Intervening at the earliest stages of speech and language development (from the age 4 to 10) by appropriate language support and therapy. 3. Helping children to fully benefit from the education with speech and language pathology online tool that will include mobile assesment, practical exercises and gamification aspects. Speech and language therapy online tool will be design by the project consortium with different tests with fun activities for kids such as games, flashcards and worksheets to make pre-assessment both for speech disorders and language disorders. Teachers (at kindergarten and primary schools) will use the tests to write what (s)he hear from the kid and at the end there will be a final score. This score will calculate according to the well known and accepted scientific/pedagogic tests about speech and language pathology. If the score is not enough to pass the tests, teachers will inform the psychological consultant of the school to talk with parents for extra-curricular speech lessons and activities. This tool will be avaliable on internet and freely downloadable from Google Play and App Store so teachers from kindergarten and primary school, children’s parents and caretakers will easily access and use them. The resources will serve multiple purposes to develop and support language skills (grammar, syntax, vocabulary, phonology and narration) of students at different ages of the child (from 4 to 10 years of age). Intellectual outputs of the project are: 1. Speech and language therapy childhood education report 2. Benchmarks for speech and language therapy education 3. Speech and language therapy online tools 4. Resource pack for teachers at initial education 5. Usability evaluation report The project will also increase general public awareness about speech and language disorders. Project result will disseminate among teachers, NGOs and other stakeholders at seminars, workshops and conferences to understand the importance of the needs of language impared children. It will help to involve children’s parents in the process of speech and language therapy, which can further increase the success of language support. Partner organizations has expertise on special education, speech trepay and information technologies and they make research, content development, training and applicaticain creation for students and the local community. There are 1 primary school, 3 universities, 1 association for people with disabilities, 1 educational association, 2 SMEs working about accessibility and gamification.
The actual implementation of the project confirmed practically the expected impact related to the need for high quality education and the availability of tools for early recognition of speech and language pathology in children in the context of their personal development. The need for such a project was confirmed by the Eurydice report on key data on early childhood education and care in Europe for 2014, published jointly with Eurostat. Its purpose was to give an idea of what constitutes high-quality education in early childhood through internationally comparable indicators, which were followed in the implementation of the project activities. "Speech and language pathology" as a science is at the intersection of medical, linguistic, educational and psychological research areas. It focuses on the etymology, assessment (screening, identification and diagnosis) and intervention (promotion, prevention, counseling, therapy, referral, management, rehabilitation and education) of communication and swallowing disorders. Speech disorder refers to a problem with the actual production of sounds (articulation, fluency, voice), while a language disorder refers to a problem in understanding or combining words to communicate ideas (receptive, expressive cognitive communication). Literacy problems are still a real challenge in the EU: - A large number of children have problems with learning their native language; - Early speech and language problems cause later language disorders; - Language proficiency influences academic achievement and success throughout life, as well as socialization. The project created an online tool for detecting a speech and language pathology for teachers in kindergartens and primary schools with multiple sound tests, which is different for each language and tailored to the specifics of the spoken language in the respective partner country. In addition, different types of exercises were created to test and practice problematic sounds at different positions in the word, sentence, and short text to achieve problem sound automation. The online tool was developed by the project consortium with various tests with fun activities for children such as games, flash cards and worksheets to make a preliminary assessment of potential speech and language disorders. Teachers (in kindergartens and primary schools) already use the tools and other support materials, describe what they hear from the child and at the end of the test the final result is visualized graphically. This result is calculated according to the well-known and accepted scientific and pedagogical tests for speech and language pathology. If the result indicates a speech disorder or a problem with the pronunciation of a certain sound, teachers have reason to inform the school psychologist to talk to parents about additional activities or consultation with an appropriate specialist. The main goals of the project "SpeelPath4Teachers" were: - Increasing the chances for education of children with speech and language difficulties / problems by creating tools for early recognition of speech pathology - to be used by teachers in kindergartens and primary schools; - Intervention in the earliest stages of speech and language development through appropriate free support tools and materials; - Supporting children in their education through a mobile application with exercises and a test to check for speech and language difficulties. The tool described above is widely available on the Internet and can be downloaded freely from Google Play so that teachers, parents and caregivers have easy access. The resources will serve for a long period of time for general educational support, as well as for the development of language and speech skills (grammar, syntax, vocabulary, phonology and storytelling) for students of different ages. The achieved intellectual results of the project are 5, of which 4 are approved for funding, and IO5 is developed in the form of self-participation and additionally funded by funds from PMI: 1. Speech and language therapy childhood education report 2. Benchmarks for speech and language therapy education 3. Speech and language therapy online tools 4. Resource pack for teachers at initial education 5. Usability evaluation report The project also contributed to raising public awareness of the consequences of untimely intervention to prevent speech pathology or to alleviate language disorders. The results of the project are already used by teachers, NGOs and other stakeholders in their day-to-day work, as well as become part of additional educational support programs.