The SKATE project aims to impact on the quantity and quality of inclusive early childhood education in the countries involved in the project (and beyond), by generating knowledge on the appropriate use of digital and mostly innovative technologies in early childhood education and by disseminating this knowledge through multiplier events and publications. An important starting point is the growing presence of children with disabilities or emerging disabilities in mainstream pre-primary school. The project responds to European ECEC teachers’ needs to be supported in gearing innovative technology as resource for inclusive education and the Skate project will deploy innovative resources from the field experience of Assistive Technology centres, EU and national policies fostering the take up of digital technologies in inclusive education, and the wide experience of participating organisations. Educators and teachers have a key role to play in responding to these challenges, but very often there are barriers (lack of knowledge & digital skills among teachers, lack of resources, fear for change, consolidated practice vs complexity of innovation) preventing the development of meaningful experiences with technology in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Combining these aspects, the SKATE (Skills & Knowledge on (Assistive) Technology in EarlyChildhood Inclusive Education) project will be pursuing and achieving the following objectives:-To foster new skills and knowledge of teachers/educators for the appropriate use of technology/digital solutions to create an increasingly inclusive learning environment (but not technology as a goal in itself and at all cost);-To increase the quality of ECEC as delivered by the partners and other schools by promoting on an as needs basis early intervention with appropriate assistive technology for children with special needs or at risk of exclusion (leaving no one behind).SKATE target groups are:- Pre-primary school teachers/educators from mainstream education in Belgium, Italy, Cyprus and Republic of North Macedonia- Responsible pedagogical managers of pre-primary schools.- Children with disabilities and their families and professionals in health and social care.- The wider European community for the promotion of inclusive education.The partnership composed by two Universities, two assistive technology providers and one NGO working within a network of ECEC services providers will develop and implement activities and researchs leading to the definition of guidelines, learning programmes and toolkits for educators, teachers, school managers and parents. Following a state of the art analysis and an assessment of needs at all levels and among primary stakeholders (IO1), technology enabled strategies and tools will be designed and developed for the empowerment of European pre-primary schools and their staff, the whole group of children as well as single learners within special needs. This will involve the deployment of smart toys, sensor technology, simulated environments, robots, kinematics, etc., as well as specific assistivetechnologies, such as those based on eye gazing, voice control and movement tracking. The toolkit (IO2) will be helpful to those that wish to increase the level ofinclusion and improve the general educational service performance and its readiness for the future.SKATE will further develop a competency framework for those excelling in technology enhanced inclusive education and learning programmes that, informed and guided by the framework, respond to identified needs (IO3). The project will realise then the following Outputs:1)Mapping, assessment and innovative approaches on inclusive technology for ECEC2)Guidelines Inclusive classrooms for ECEC teachers3)Toolkit: competency framework, learning programmes and assessment methodologiesThe implementation of the activities and outputs will be able to reach the following impacts:• Professionalisation of staff as a key element of creating an attractive, sustainable and highly competent profession.• Social inclusion: narrowing skill gaps between children of different backgrounds (including also children with special needs)• Promoting the professionalisation of ECEC staff in delivering assistive technology • Developing policies to attract, educate enhance qualified staff in ECEC• Moving towards ECEC systems which integrate care and education, and improve quality, equity and system efficiency• Facilitating the transition of SEN children between family and education/care, and between levels of education• Ensuring quality assurance: designing coherent, well-coordinated pedagogical frameworks,• Involving key stakeholdersThe long-term sustainability of activities and products is ensured by the acquisition and deployment of outputs and methodologies by participating organisations, involved ECEC services and stakeholders. All the products will be freely available as OER.

<< Background >>In the EU, around 80 million people live with a more or less severe disability - that is more than 15 percent of the entire European population. A disability restricts those affected in their everyday life. The limitation can have an impact on different areas of everyday life, depending on the severity of the disability. Regardless whether a disability is innate or has developed in the course of life as a result of an accident or illness, things that were previously taken for granted often have to be done differently. The care needs of people with disabilities vary greatly and can also change over time. Among those affected and their relatives and friends, there is a strong desire to maintain a life that is as self-determined and independent as possible in their own home, despite the limitations they experience, while having to accept as little external help as possible. The skilful use of smart home / AAL technologies, which are commonly available and affordable today, can make an enormous contribution enabling people with disabilities to participate actively, autonomously, independently and in a socially included way in life. In most cases, however, the necessary know-how is lacking: manufacturers of smart technologies are not aware of the special needs and problems of people with disabilities; people with disabilities and their formal and informal caregivers usually do not have an awareness of the possibilities of the new technologies, through which significant improvements in everyday life could be achieved. To fill this gap, the SWEET HOME project aims to build a bridge and bring together people with very different types of disabilities and needs structures, carers and technology developers in an exchange. In addition, the project wants to develop user-oriented, clear and easy-to-follow instructions based on the already existing possibilities, so that the homes of people with disabilities can be equipped with adequate technology - at a relatively low cost - and open up new opportunities and perspectives for them in all important areas of life: health care and monitoring, personal care, comfort, home security, entertainment, cleaning, mobility in the home, energy saving, social participation and e-learning.<< Objectives >>The overall goal of SWEET HOME is to open up a new world of opportunities and possibilities for people with disabilities and special needs to live a more independent, autonomous, safe, healthy, comfortable and stimulating life in their own homes. This will be achieved by addressing the lack of knowledge of professionals such as caregivers, social educators, occupational therapists and psychologists in the use of new home technology. The project will do this by developing and offering training courses on an interactive e-learning platform, the content of which will deal with the installation of various domotics/home automation technologies in the home environment. The content will be tailored to people with disabilities (Down syndrome, blindness and visual impairment, hearing impairment, muscular dystrophy, Alzheimer's disease, cystic fibrosis, renal disease) and designed to meet their specific needs. They should be able to live in their own homes with full integration into society. The aim is to avoid them having to live in institutions far from their families and friends. These training courses will be offered to both formal and informal caregivers, the family or even the person with disabilities themselves.To achieve these goals, SWEET HOME will work towards the following specific objectives:SO1- Analysis of different types of physical, intellectual, sensory and organic disabilities in real environments and identification of the different needs of persons with disabilities to enable them to live independently. It is necessary to distinguish between different types of disabilities and not to consider the field of disability as a whole.SO2- Establishing networks of associations for people with specific disabilities as well as experts in domotics, AAL, ICT and new technologies to work together on solving the needs that these different groups of disabilities might have.SO3- Giving recommendations for action to address unmet needs of communities and service providers in the future.SO4- Development of a pioneer learning and training strategy as well as content for training in basic and hands-on concepts of home automation and domotics, targeting caregivers, families and people with disabilities.SO5- Setting up of an interactive learning platform with free access, customised to the specific needs of the different groups of people with disabilities.<< Implementation >>The SWEET HOME Cooperation Partnership brings together partners from academia, research, industry, disability and VET from Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Greece with profiles and competences that ensure the achievement of the proposed project outcome through the exchange of expertise and knowledge in the addressed topics and sectors. A network will be formed with experts in the fields of disability, home automation and VET who will work together to achieve a common outcome that will increase the autonomy of people with a disability.The activities carried out in the framework of the project, with the support of a number of associated partners, representatives of target users and stakeholders, will pursue the following objectives:- The provision of three important Project Results: 7 guides with problems, needs and solutions in the field of home technology for people with disabilities, materials for 3 courses for caregivers to implement these solutions in the home environment, and an interactive learning platform where these materials will be made available to everyone. In order to successfully realise the proposed project results, many different activities will be undertaken by all project partners: Carrying out interviews, real life observations and round tables with professionals in 5 European countries to analyse the real needs for 7 different types of disabilities and possible solutions (also to explain unresolved needs); design of a joint curriculum divided into 3 courses with basic concepts, practical application in 10 thematic areas (health care and monitoring, personal care, home comfort, home safety, entertainment, cleaning, home mobility, energy saving, social participation and e-learning) and instructions for implementation, development of the material with videos, instructions, practical exercises, available in 6 languages (English, German, Italian, Spanish, French and Greek) and testing this material with professionals and other stakeholders in 5 countries (Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Greece) after the development of an interactive multilingual platform suited to this material, usable by everyone and allowing learners to choose their own learning pathway, course or even modules according to their needs or interests.- Implementation of a promotional plan so that the developed material will be fully available and promoted at European level (with a visual identity, website, promotional video, podcast, newsletters, brochures, articles...) so that professionals can acquire this knowledge as well as digital skills and improve the autonomy and independence of people with disabilities in their homes.- Organisation and holding of five Transnational Project Meetings during the project lifetime, so that partners and stakeholder representatives could review the activities already carried out, discuss and plan upcoming tasks, monitor financial issues and exchange information and experiences.- Organisation and implementation of six regional/national Multiplier Events to reach all defined target groups and interested stakeholders to promote the elaborated project results to a wide audience and to improve the understanding of their use and related benefits.- Implementation of Quality Assurance and Risk Monitoring activities to monitor the quality of all project activities and results carried out as part of the project development ensuring that the project implementation follows the foreseen working plan and the defined quality indicators.<< Results >>The SWEET HOME project will develop 4 key project deliverables that will be completely open and free to the general public for greater impact in subsequent years on the project's own website and on various open platforms:- 7 reports/guides with problems, solutions and recommendations for each group's own smart home. A specific guide will be developed for people with a physical, mental, sensory, neurological or organic disability (Down syndrome, blindness and visual impairment, hearing impairment, muscular dystrophy, Alzheimer's disease, cystic fibrosis, kidney disease). It will present the different challenges in daily life faced by each of these disability groups and technical solutions proposed by experts in home automation and Ambient Assisted Living systems to address these needs. There will also be a blueprint with recommendations for the industry sector to focus on unresolved needs for actions in the future.- A joint curriculum and 3 courses with enriched slides, step-by-step explanations, practical exercises and animated and real videos about home automation related to the home environment of people with disabilities, including basic concepts, practical installations related to 10 topics (healthcare and monitoring, personal care, home comfort, home security, entertainment, cleaning, home mobility, energy saving, social participation and e-learning) and simple instructions on how to use these technologies. With these courses, it will be possible to improve learners' digital skills. Courses at this level are not yet available in Europe and will be very beneficial for jobs working with people with disabilities and the autonomy of the different groups. These courses will be available in English, German, Italian, Spanish, French and Greek.- Interactive learning platform to deploy all the training material with free access for each learner, tailored to their needs, with the possibility of choosing different paths and courses inside and adapted to different devices such as PCs, laptops, mobile phones or tablets. It will be usable by everyone, including users with special needs and available in 6 languages - English, German, Italian, Spanish, French and Greek. This platform will be tested by different stakeholders and improved according to their suggestions.- Creation of networks between associations of people with disabilities as well as service providers and experts in home automation for the development.- Different resources for promoting this project to increase visibility and awareness: logo, website, leaflet, promotional video, 4 newsletters, podcasts, social network, articles, presence at conferences.- Organization of five local Multiplier/Promotional Events among target users and stakeholder representatives aiming at sharing and promoting the mentioned Project Results produced by the project, improving the understanding of their use and the presenting all their possibilities for the purpose they will be developed for.

The aim of this project was to create innovative intervention model based on cognitive and narrative psychotherapies principles and elements improving students with EBLD learning motivation to prevent early school leaving (thereafter - ESL). The aim of this model was a precise identification of the genetically programmed needs, i.e. its’ content, which determines emotional and behavioral difficulties. The project seeks for extension of the model with children thoughts i.e., enabling to modify them and replacing the needs satisfaction forms with pro-social behavior. It was expected that this method will increase an internal motivation of students with EBLD for behavioral changes. Project partially has reached it's objectives: • to create the instrument defining students with EBLD profile; • to create and test innovative intervention model based on scientific research methods and cognitive and narrative psychotherapies principles and elements; make it ready to use for an international team of educators; • to create gamified IT tool using the project intervention model enabling particularly approaches for engagement of contemporary learners and educators. Intervention model was created for students with EBLD of 12-19 years old studying in relevant educational institutions (e.g. secondary, VET, special or youth schools). The direct target group of the project - students with attention problems, hyperactivity, memory problems, tension to disobey the social rules and instructions, having poor language abilities, poor social skills, aggressive, withdrawn or bizarre behavior, poor academic performance and students with mild intellectual disabilities. Special attention will be paid on socio-economically disadvantaged students. The other large group of beneficiaries - tutors/educators, who are working with the target group of students and will have possibility to use created innovative intervention model and other project outputs. Project contained several innovative products: • a new instrument to define the psychological and pedagogical profile of students with EBLD, aimed to reveal an in-depth behaviour reasons as well as cultural differences; created new Students Needs Analysis Instrument, helping school specialists to identify the reasons of emotional, behavior and learning difficulties of students with EBLD; • a new intervention model for students with EBLD; • a new EBLD intervention teacher training curriculum; • a new gamified training tool, enabling students with EBLD to learn at personal pace, using verbal and visual interactions. The consortium of project partners consisted of 3 HEIs, representing social sciences (LT, IT, GR), 2 SME dealing with technologies (LT) and innovative pedagogy (LT, BG) and 1 VET (DE) with expertise in pedagogy for students with special needs. After project evaluation, project duration was shortened from 3 years to 2. Accordingly, there was made a budget cutoff. All this influenced project activities and made some difficulties in reaching planned numbers of people from the various targeted groups. Some of the planned activities (such as learning/training activities for teachers), were not implemented as well. Due mentioned reasons, project consortium could not reach mentioned impact as it was planned in the project proposal (there was no possibility to test such activities practically): • Increased learning motivation and reduced early school leaving of students with EBLD; • Students with EBLD increased social inclusion and more active participation in society; • Increased level of Digital competence of educational institutions specialists; • Increased opportunities for professional development of teachers, researchers, lecturers, high school students, policy makers and other stakeholders; • Parental increased satisfaction with schools.Despite mentioned aspects, the impact of created intellectual outputs could be observed through such activities:• Educational institutions specialists and their improved competences, related to Professional profiles. It was reached during multiplier events whereas participated teachers and even pupils with EBLD (in Bulgaria, Germany).• Increased teachers‘ motivation and satisfaction in a daily work. This impact could be partially monitored, during the multiplier evens. Unfortunately, due to shortened project duration and budged cutoff, project team could not arrange learning/teaching activities for teachers in order to measure their motivation or satisfaction working with created IOs.• Increased professional development of specialists, involved in the projects activities. All specialists, which were related with the creation with IOs activities, participated in multiplier events, enhanced their qualification in their daily work with students’ with EBLD.

"15 million EU citizens have an intellectual disability (POMONA II, 2008). It means a reduction of the ability to understand new or complex information and learn and apply new skills (World Health Organization). In Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (PwID) the following cognitive functions may be impaired, hindering proper knowledge acquisition and competence development: Attention, Memory, Reasoning, Language, Perception, Problem-Solving, Conceptualizing, Self-Regulation, Social development. Since people with cognitive deficits (i.e. neurodevelopmental or intellectual disabilities) have limitations in adaptive behavior they represent an important target of interventions specifically aimed at improving overall function independence and Quality of Life (QoL). Therefore, PwID must be trained for improving impaired cognitive functions in order to increase their ability to understand new or complex information, learn and apply new skills, improve their adaptive behavior and, accordingly, their QoL.Traditional training methodologies often do not apply to PwID, or are insufficient. The use of ICT Serious Games (ICT-SG) or ""training games"" is fairly accepted by PwID because they are more motivated, don´t feel the pressure of real world, feeling comfortable to explore virtual world, being able to keep attention on tasks, and can develop motor coordination and spatial orientation. Therefore, ICT-SG constitute an alternative or complement to current training methods for PwID.The main objective ID-GAMING is to increase the competences of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities and related Professionals and Relatives in the implementation of ICT Serious Games for improving cognitive functions, and therefore, their QoL. Specific objectives of ID GAMING are: •To increase the awareness of this target group regarding the relevance of ICT-SG•To select and collect proper ICT-SG for better training the cognitive functions of PwID according to the specific needs and capacities.•To transfer knowledge, guidelines and procedures on how to use ICT-SG to produce specific aimed outcomes in terms of cognitive functions and Quality of Life•To develop and improve Digital Skills of PwID•To increase the socialization of PwID through the collaborative gaming and involvement of the Relatives in the use of ICT Serious Games out of the care centers.Through the execution of this Project the next main results will be obtained:Quality of Life Training Game (Intellectual Output 1). A Serious Game called Quality of Life Training Game (QoLTG) will be designed. The main purpose of this Collaborative Serious Game is to facilitate PwID the improvement of their cognitive functions and quality of life while playing this game. PwID and Supports will participate in the design of this output.Training Toolkit (Intellectual Output 2)A Training Toolkit will be developed including: - Methodological Guidelines for playing Quality of Life Game (I.O.1) with training purposes; - Training Materials, developed specifically to create awareness and increase knowledge about the potential of ICT-Serious Games for training cognitive functions and increasing Quality of Life; - ICT Serious Games Catalogue, organized per Cognitive Functions including 3 to 5 selected existing ICT Serious Games per cognitive function. They will be adapted to the specific needs, capacities and learning difficulties of the different collectives involved in the Target Group (PwID and Supports). ID-GAMING e-Training Tool (Intellectual Output 3)The ID-GAMING e-Training Tool will be developed including a Web Based Game for playing the Quality of Life Training Game developed in I.O.1, with the supervision of trainers and supports or by themselves. In addition, ID-GAMING e-Training Tool will allow access to the Training Toolkit for those persons that are not directly playing QoLTG but are interested in playing ICT-SG with learning purposes. This access will be done through a search engine that will allow access to Training Toolkit’s Materials through key questions.4 Multiplier Events (Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece) will be implemented on the application of ICT Serious Games to PwID for improving cognitive functions, and therefore, their Quality of Life involving stakeholders who will multiply the impact of the projectDissemination Actions will be implemented targeting the sector of Intellectual Disability at national and European level as well as experts in the field of Serious Games.During the project, the estimated impact will be- 100 persons, including PwID and Supports, will directly improve their cognitive functions, and accordingly their Quality of Life in the Validation Pilot Actions.- 120 stakeholders will participate in the Multiplier Events- 2.000 persons, including PwID and Supports, and other Stakeholders will increase their awareness and knowledge about the relevance of CT-Serious Games for improve the cognitive functions, and QoL"

<< Objectives >>ALL SUSTAINABLE is launched with the AIM of empowering PID to be sustainable citizens and contribute as active agents to sustainable development.ALL SUSTAINABLE will develop a Serious Game-Based Training Methodology for increasing the awareness and competences of PID about sustainability and further transference to independent living projects based in an action-oriented learning approach, where they will be involved by playing an innovative Digital Serious Game<< Implementation >>The Implementation of the ALL-SUSTAINABLE project activities will be structured through the following Working PackagesWP1. Project ManagementWP2. Development of a Serious Game-Based Training MethodologyWP3. Production of a Digital Serious GameWP4. Development of a Training Package with Resources for Trainers and Training Material for Persons with Intellectual DisabilitiesWP5. Sharing, promotion and sustainability activities<< Results >>Main tangible results will be:Experiential Training Methodology for PID’s acquisition of sustainable competences and further transference to their independent living projectsA Digital Serious GameA Training Package for Trainers and PID (trainees)Impact;75 PID and 25 Trainers will participate in the Validation Pilot Actions150 Stakeholders will be involved in the National Multiplier Events3.000 PID, Trainers, Supports and Stakeholders will be targeted by the dissemination actions