FORDYS-VAR aims to improve the quality of student life of school children with dyslexia thanks to: - The creation of VR and AR materials for the treatment of dyslexia in school children and of a guide with materials aimed at dyslexia issues (good practices in this field, methodological guidelines and OER (open educational resources). - The creation of an eBook for families, associations of relatives with dyslexia or/and policymakers to have access to a repository of materials and information about this disorder. - The creation of a white paper that will contain scientific information about the needs of children with dyslexia and the different approaches to treatment used in the EU. In this way, school children with dyslexia will have a greater integration that will lead to improvement in the accessibility of the work/university world. Teachers can count on an important set of materials adapted to the group, their interests, and their needs, improving the quality of their lives during their school period, reducing frustration and low self-esteem in these minors. In addition, it will empower teachers and education professionals in this group and enhance their skills and competencies in the field. Moreover, it will give family members the guidelines for the detection of the first symptoms by empowering them, generating a better wellbeing in the family and reducing stress, since the factor of accessing to effective material for these children will allow families to adopt an effective strategy, promoting a better adaptation to the difficulties of the children. Emphasis will be placed on those related to the use of VR and other technologies, based on pedagogical and scientific principles, giving greater visibility to the problem to support and encourage aid for this group. From the point of view of IT development, the incorporation of school children with dyslexia to the network can open up a wide field of new needs and market possibilities for IT development companies, especially in the field of socio-health assistance; pedagogical; didactic. Thanks to the consortium formed by 5 participants from Spain, Italy, and Romania with experience in teaching through ICT, with knowledge in current technologies of AR and VR and experience in the field of dyslexia, the mentioned aspects will be achieved, being the FORDYS-VAR project a success.
During the development of the FORDYS-VAR project, materials have been developed to improve the quality of life of school children with dyslexia. The project has focused on several important points that improve educational inclusion: - The creation of motivating VR and AR materials that can be used as a complement to traditional dyslexia interventions for schoolchildren. In this sense, both AR and VR applications constitute motivational materials, developed to work on different difficulties of children with dyslexia in two different age ranges (8-12 and 12-16). These applications have mainly taken into account the realization of an inclusive material within video games. The materials are free to download and have been adapted to oculus quest technology in the case of VR and in the case of AR they can be used on tablets or smartphones. In this sense the technology is advancing very fast and adaptations have been made so that it can also be used with the second generation of oculus. - An e-book has been developed so that families, associations of relatives with dyslexia have access to different materials in the three languages of the project partners. This book includes applications and resources in VR and AR that can be used safely. As a reinforcement of this ebook, applications in Portuguese have also been collected and the ebook has been translated into this language. Another reinforcement has been the inclusion of guidelines and materials for English language learning in children with dyslexia whose first language is Spanish, since one of the main difficulties and concerns that associations and families have communicated to us has been this circumstance: children with dyslexia learn a second language in a different way, since their language processing is different. - The white paper contains scientific information on the needs of children with dyslexia and the different treatment approaches used in the EU. As well as the development of the main policy lines in each of the countries. In this way, schoolchildren with dyslexia will have a greater inclusion that will result in improved accessibility to the school world. As a reinforcement of this material, common European policies on educational inclusion and a new section on Portuguese policies have been included, as well as the Portuguese translation of this material. The design of all the materials, make FORDYS-VAR a project for the different professionals to have a set of materials adapted to the group, their interests and needs, improving the quality of life of children with dyslexia during their school period, reducing frustration and low self-esteem of these children. Throughout the development of the project, we have worked with different education professionals, so that through collaboration and dissemination of the project they can learn and improve their knowledge about dyslexia, their possible interventions and skills in the field. Another one of the pillars of the project development has been the collaboration with associations of families of children with dyslexia, these associations have actively participated in the development of the project materials. In this sense, FORDYSVAR has given visibility to new materials that can be a part of dyslexia interventions both in the family and in the school, since its materials aren´t restricted only to professionals, it facilitates intervention from different perspectives. VR and AR materials are a motivating element at ages when traditional interventions are difficult. From the point of view of computer development and application design, the incorporation of schoolchildren with dyslexia to the network can open a wide field of new needs and market opportunities for computer development companies, in fact we have seen how in recent years the interest and development of new projects and research within VR and AR has increased especially in the field of social and health care; pedagogical or didactic. Thanks to the partnership formed by 5 participants from Spain, Italy and Romania and the collaboration of Portugal, it has been possible to carry out this project despite the many difficulties that its development has entailed within the pandemic situation that we have experienced. The partners have remained active in spite of the difficulties, carrying out the planned activities and the proposed reinforcements, always thinking about the development of the best final product for the benefit of children with this learning difficulty.