The number of blind and visually impaired children between the ages of 0 and 4 is relatively small, but for them, the learning between ages 3 to 6 is essential to establish their real inclusion possibilities. The several studies on children with mild to severe visual impairment have proven that generating attention mechanisms as early as possible is essential for them to reach an appropriate maturity and to integrate in their families, schools and socially, without their visual handicap impeding their healthy development. This early attention has been historically conceived from a segregation perspective where blind people were “educated in their world for their own world”; nowadays, however, the social inclusion of children with visual impairment is a priority. This is the main principle that sustains and gives life to the project “Looking for a school for everyone: educational inclusion at early ages for students with reduced vision”. In this initiative, a crosscutting partnership of entities from Spain, Norway and Italy want to promote an equal inclusion of children with mild to severe visual impairments in standard early education and nursery schools, not only to enhance the children’s psychological, motor and pedagogical training, but also to promote their future inclusion and social and occupational integration abilities. This will make them able to participate and interact in normal ways with people without visual impairments, and also to compete at their level in productivity and efficiency. In order to accomplish this, it is essential to train teachers and provide them with specific tools so they can transform their classrooms into inclusive ones for children with visual impairments. This is why this initiative proposes the creation of two innovative and ambitious intellectual results: - The VIRTUAL TRAINING COURSE FOR THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS AND EARLY EDUCATION CENTERS IN THE INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT IN THEIR CLASSROOMS: A virtual course, easily accessible through an e-learning platform, aimed to train teachers of early education and nursery schools, so they can turn their classrooms into inclusive ones for children with mild to severe visual impairments. - An EDUCATIVE GAME: ICT TOOL FOR THE INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT IN THE CLASSROOM: a new and unique ICT tool that provides solutions and answers for teachers to facilitate the effective inclusion of children with mild to severe visual impairments in standard classrooms. All of this, plus multiple tangible and intangible results to be highlighted, such as a methodological guide for the adaptation of early childhood education centers into inclusive schools for children with visual impairment, a flexible and innovative methodology for the training of teachers, and the constitution of a crosscutting network that promotes the exchange of experiences and knowledge, as well as achieving significant improvements and impact on the inclusion of children with visual impairment between the ages of 3 and 6. In order to develop these high quality results, the project will be framed in the school education sector, specifically in early education, and with a lifespan of 2 years, starting on September 1st 2018 and ending on August 31sy 2020. Four transnational meetings (in Spain, Italy, Norway, and Spain again) will be held during this period, plus several activities to create materials, regular meetings, dissemination and evaluation activities, as well as three great multiplier events to launch the results. We expect the project to have a great impact on early childhood education, especially on students with mild to severe visual deficiencies, as well as on the training of teachers at this level. It should be noted that the European Commission and the EU Member States, through EU’s “ET 2020 Thematic Working Group on Early Childhood Education and Care (2012-2014) have acknowledged that access to inclusive and high quality EAPI (Educación y Atención a la Primera Infancia) services is beneficial for everyone. EAPI are essential to an efficient education system: investing as early as possible in a high quality education for everyone avoids higher costs in later stages of education, where the differential costs to close the gaps between high and low performance students are higher. Many studies have shown the long-term positive effect of EAPI policies in the context of universal or large-scale provision financed with public funds; these benefits include a wide range of individual and social gain so the impact of this project can be highly significant and sustained over time. We hope that, once this Project is finished, the network will continue to develop new projects in this field.
The number of blind or severely visually impaired children between 0 and 6 years old is relatively small, but the impact of these first years of visual impairment is critical to establish their future possibilities of inclusion. Multiple studies carried out on children who suffer from mild to severe visual impairment have shown that generating care mechanisms as early as possible is essential for them to reach adequate maturity and achieve full inclusion in their family, school, and social environment. This early attention to the child with visual impairment must begin before age 4 and must be aimed at providing stimuli matching their level of development, and based in each individual case. It must be an enriching and compensating mechanism with the objective of facilitating varied non-improvised situations with specific stimuli that allow development in various areas: motor, cognitive, social, language, and personal autonomy. Historically, this specific training for children with severe visual impairment was mainly carried out in family or controlled environments for specific training, isolated from standard pre-primary schools. Nowadays, however, the social inclusion of students with visual impairment in ordinary schools is a priority. However, this transit is not easy, and it generates serious distress in the student with obstacles, their teacher, their center, and their family, since it is usually based on specific adaptations that are only “patches” that try to overcome these serious barriers, but without generating educational processes that include students with low vision in equity: the inclusive classroom model. With this ambitious objective, in 2018 an intersectorial European network was created, comprised of REDTREE MAKING PROJECTS COOP.V., the federation ANIRIDIA EUROPE, the associations ANIRIDIA ITALIANA, ANIRIDIA NORGE and ALBA, and the company SMALLCODES SRL, with the objective of developing materials and tools to facilitate the inclusion of children with low vision in pre-primary education through the design of applications adapted to their learning, and digital training materials for teachers in formal and non-formal education. We created two highly innovative and ambitious Intellectual Outputs that could answer to the needs identified: - O1. VIRTUAL TRAINING COURSE FOR THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS AND PRE-PRIMARY EDUCATION CENTERS IN THE INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT IN THEIR CLASSROOM. - O2. VISAPP - ORIGINAL ICT TOOL FOR THE INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT IN THE CLASSROOM. Along with these two Intellectual Outputs, we have developed multiple tangible and intangible results that complement them and enhance their impact: a methodological guide for the adaptation of a pre-primary schools into inclusive schools for students with low vision, a flexible and innovative methodology to train pre-primary education teachers, a user guide for the APP, and the constitution of an intersectorial network that allows the exchange of experiences and knowledge, and achieves significant improvements and impact on the inclusion of the beneficiaries. This project, framed in the school education sector, was originally planned for two years, but had to ultimately be extended to 36 months, ending on August 31st 2021, in order to be able to overcome the obstacles caused by COVID- 19 and thereby guarantee its quality and expected impact. Throughout the project, 4 Transnational Meetings were held (Spain, Italy, Norway, and a 4th virtual one), various activities for the creation of materials were carried out, periodic meetings, dissemination and evaluation activities, and 3 large Multiplier Events for the presentation of the results. To date, the project has had a high impact on pre-primary education, especially on its students with mild to severe visual impairment, and on the training of teachers at this level. The European Commission and EU Member States (EU “ET 2020 Thematic Working Group on Early Childhood Education and Care (2012-2014)”) have recognized that access to inclusive and high quality ECEC services is beneficial to all. These benefits include a wide range of individual and social improvements, so we hope that the impact of this project will not only be significant but also sustained over time.