<< Objectives >>The main theme - will be the environment and flight against climate change. But how to make special children to understand this situation - only by involving them directly - through recycling activities, through art: creating a dance, a play in which to expose the issue of climate change. We want everyone involved in the project and not only them to be aware of the problems that The Planet is facing and to act accordingly through their own resources.<< Implementation >>Teachers will participate in training activities on the theme of recycling. We will organize information activities for our students regarding how we can fight against the destruction of the Planet. We will get involved in recycling activities, we will create objects from the collected materials, we will organize fairs in which we will make known the realized objects. We will organize events - we will present plays or dances. The content of the plays will highlight our efforts to save the Planet<< Results >>Concrete results:- greening some spaces in the local community- collecting a large amount of waste (used batteries, light bulbs, plastic objects, metal objects)- making art objects from the collected materials- increasing the surface of green space around the school community- arranging a vertical garden - the school fence will be arranged with plants, different species of flowers

"<< Background >>Understanding and knowledge of sensory and cognitive specifics of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) and autism (ASD) influences the choice of adequate methods, approaches in work and the choice of teaching aids. A big educational problem in work with students with ASD is the lack of adequate teaching materials. It is necessary for them to be adjusted to the child's abilities. In the countries of the region, there are no adequate teaching materials that would bring the contents of the national curriculum closer to these students. The development of modern technology has enabled a larger number of software and devices that are used as an aid for the independent functioning of children with various forms of disabilities, but in addition, none of the available applications rely on the national curriculum. In addition to technical resources, a major problem is the scope of teacher’s professional competencies in regular schools for work with children with ID and ASD.The lack of unificated teaching materials database that could help in the adoption of teaching contents adapted to the specifics of children with ID and ASP led to the idea of making an application with adequate contents in the native language. In that manner teaching contents would be presented to children in a motivating and understandable way.The application supports the predictability and ability of the child to choose how and what speed to do the tasks. Since these children also have a problem with memorizing the order, the teaching contents are conceived in this way will reduce the feeling of frustration caused by inadequately presented activities and requirements. In addition to making materials, they would train teachers to apply and then make materials for direct work with students. In addition to the developed materials and applications with different systems of learning materials, teachers would be familiar with the methods and styles of learning.The project includes 4 partners from 3 countries in the region: Elementary School ""Anton Skala"" Belgrade, Serbia, Autism Center, Zagreb, Croatia; Anton Janša Primary School, Radovljica, Slovenia and Institute for Evaluation quality of upbringing and education, Serbia.Production and using customized materials through the application will enable a different approach to teaching through teacher training, which will learn how to adapt content based on the given models, as well as ways to transfer them during teaching. Teachers will also understand that materials for students with ID and ASD have to be made with differentiated tasks of different demanding difficulty and way of showing the answer, which in addition to the written answer and audio record can contain a graphic display. Primarly, with the project, we want to respond to the needs of children with ID and ASD by providing them customized materials that they can use at adoption of school materials, as well as the needs of teachers, who will improve their work with children who are educated according to the IEP through training and application of materials<< Objectives >>By implementing the project, we want to achieve a wider application of customized teaching materials for students with ID and ASD that will be available to all interested users. The idea of the project is to create a database of teaching materials for younger school age students (from 7 to 12 years), but given the developmental specifics of each child and the different goals defined by the IEP. Materials could be used by older school children in learning process. The application would be an instrument of work that children with ID and ASD could download and that help tham to learn the school material in an adapted way. The database of teaching materials will be easy to use and available in the languages of partner organizations (Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian), and at the same time, an additional teaching tool for teachers in schools for students with disabilities. Defectologists who work in schools for students with disabilities can in this way adapt teaching to children's learning styles and educational abilities. The application is intended to be available to all interested users, free and easy to use.The general goal of the project is:- Improving the education and upbringing of children with ID and ASD in primary school and supporting inclusive practice through the application of adapted teaching materials integrated through the application, in accordance with the national curriculum.- providing quick and free access to customized materials for interested users- training of teachers and other actors who provide support to students to independently to create customized materials, use them and present them in an adequate wayThe specific objectives are:-development models of tasks by teaching topics within the key subjects of the first cycle of education (from 7 years to 12 years) – native language, mathematics, nature and society- support for children with ID and ASD in inclusive education-expanding the offer of educational opportunities in accordance with the needs of students-compatibility of the developed application with the most frequently used operating systems<< Implementation >>The project will begin with a review of the national plan and curriculum, each partner for the area selected to create materials in line with the given content. After the review, the material will be made. The materials will be adapted in terms of the image of the text and the way of processing the material itself. In parallel with this phase, the coordinator will create a project site that will serve promotional purposes. At the same time, hired developers, from the company with we will establish a contractual cooperation, will start working on the development of the application. The application will be developed in accordance with the motor and sensory specifics of children with ID and ASD in order to be an adequate tool for the acquisition of academic knowledge. All partners will give suggestions about the specifics of children, so that the developers have a clearer picture of the appearance and functional characteristics of the application.After the beta version is made, the meeting of all partner organizations will assess the compliance of the application with the needs and abilities of children. Suggestions will be forwarded to developers, so they can optimize the application for use. The teams will exchange the materials. After adapting to their native language, each team will send material suggestions to the partners. After completing the material they will be sent to the reviewer in Institute for Evaluation quality of upbringing and education who will give his expert opinion.After making changes and finalizing the material, it will be entered into the application database. The application will be made in accordance with the motor and sensory specifics of children with ID and ASD and it would be an adequate tool for the acquisition of academic knowledge.The coordinator of the institution will rent a service where the materials will be stored during the project, and later, upon completion of the project, to supplement with new materials, which will expand the base. The selection of new materials, which will be submitted by teachers, will be performed by a formed team composed of 3 member, one from each partner organization.Application development - The goal is to create an application that would be available on desktops, tablets and mobile phones. Developed application with systematically planned differentiation through tasks (tasks of different demanding difficulty and showing answers, which in addition to written answer and audio recordings can contain graphic display and similar).The application itself will have the ability to measure student performance and the number of trial and error as well as reduce the number of distractors in order to successfully, independently complete the activity started.Review of national curriculum - due to the harmonization of materials with the curriculum, so that children with developmental disabilities can acquire the knowledge in an innovative way provided by the national curriculum and keep pace with their peers of the typical population.Production of materials - The goal is to create materials with appropriate pictograms, text and visual presentation of the content, in accordance with national curriculum. The development will be based on the results of the curriculum review by all relevant persons involved in the project. Partner organizations will work in parallel on the content within the given topics:Autism Center: MathematicsElementary school ""Antona Janše: Nature and society / world around usElementary school ""Anton Skala"": Mother tongueLease of data storage service - the goal is to protect the material from loss, the server has a backup service that will start if an error occurs. The database will be secure and accessible to users.Inserting materials into the database - The goal is to help teachers from schools with ready-made materials from which they will be able to see the learning system in addition to the application itself.Sharing and Impact-All partners<< Results >>Students with ASD and ID require a special approach in the work based on a clear structure of tasks / requirements that are broken down by steps as well as customized and organized materials and activities. Although there are materials made according to this principle, they are not selected and harmonized with the curriculum, which leads to teachers creating materials for these children themselves, by subject. Also, in inclusive primary schools and schools that have long been specialized in certain types of disabilities , teachers often burdened with a large number of students as well as insufficient competencies in this area, are forced to use a larger number of resources to create teaching materials that are adapted to children with ASD and ID. Depending on the case, they may prove adequate or completely inappropriate, which determines the child's success in school, the development of self-confidence and motivation for further learning.Results and outcomes:- created a site with available customized materials- tutorial for using the site- an application with a base of materials that through different learning styles that helps in the acquisition of knowledge.- trained teachers who use the material base and the application.- Using this application, teachers will be able to help students with autism and intellectual disabilities - obstacles to adopt the academic knowledge envisaged in the plan with adapted teaching materials and program- more independent functioning of students in the classroom, by choosing adequate materials- increasing the motivation of children to acquire knowledge- establishing mutual trust and self-confidence in children- learning based on the strengths and interests of students.- Acquisition of additional competencies through teacher training- reducing frustration among teachers and students as well as increasing success in mastering the material.- a free and easily accessible tool for mastering school materials."

"The prevalence of autism was 1:10,000 twenty years ago. Today, according to the newest data (Autism Speaks), it is 1:59. This information obligates the community to respond by taking into account several perspectives and meeting the needs of autistic children in school. Autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental state that affects all spheres of personality and is reflected in the problems of communication, social interaction and the perceptions of the world around them. Social stories proved to be an extremely effective tool for improving all aspects of social communication and interaction with people with autism.Social stories are brief descriptions of events or activities that contain clear information about what can be expected of some situation and why. They provide people with autism with an idea of how others can react in practical situations and the frameworks of adequate behavior for themselves and others.Our school has years of experience working with children with autism spectrum. Applying different methods and ways of work, experts in defectology from our school have discovered that the key to working with autistic children is developing strategies for social communication and behavior modification. That is also a precondition for their successful integration into the system of full-time education. For this purpose, social stories are used.The biggest problem in developing and applying Social stories is the lack of training for teachers in regular schools and absence of Social stories in our language or any other language of our region. In order to form a unique tool base which will be available in three languages we have connected with leading institutions and eminent experts who have great experience working with children as well as in European projects. Therefore, the project aims to build, strengthen and create the skills of teachers working with children with autism spectrum. The specific goals are:• Make Practicum with social stories for teachers• Train teachers to use the Practicum with social stories• Train teachers to create individual social stories to overcome confusing and stressful situations in children with autismPracticum will enable teachers to facilitate children with autism learning and functioning in inclusive education and by directing parents to the appropriate use of social stories will make children adapt to a wider social community.I-OK includes 4 partners from 3 different countries:Primary school ""Anton Skala"" - Belgrade, Serbia - coordinator,Alliance of Association of Serbia for assistance to people with autism – Serbia, Center for Autism–Croatia, CSOP - BulgariaThe project will begin with research. Focus group surveys in participating countries will be used to determine the need for a specific topic that is an integral part of the Practicum. The results of this research will be crucial for the development of the next phase of the project.After analyzing the results of the focus group, the methodological practicum will be developed using the synthesis of the literature used as the starting point for defining the theoretical basis of Practicum. It will contain a description of what are the specifics of social interaction and communication in people with autism, what are the social stories, who they are intended for, what is benefit of them, the way they are applied, what types exist and how they are developed. At the same time partners will work according to given themes on the examination, search and design of appropriate materials for the preparation of the working version of the pilot project.PRACTICUM DESIGN - The goal is to provide Practicum ultimate look and structure.PILOT PROJECT – It will serve to assess the quality and applicability of the working version of the practicum. After receiving completed surveys we will analyze responses and make eventual correction of the practicum according to relevant suggestions.PRACTICUM DEVELOPMENT - Partner organizations will simultaneously work on specific content related to given topics:The Alliance develops first part of Practicum - methodology of making social stories that will serve as a teachers tutorialsCenter for Autism–Health PracticumCSOP- Daily routine Practicum""Anton Skala"" - School and BehaviorDISSEMINATION AND EVALUATION - All partners will participate in various activities to contribute realization of the project goals. They will join efforts in evaluation and dissemination of the project results.Final phase of the project will be used to develop a series of analyzing tools that will help implementation of Practicum and tools for sustainability and promotion of the project. The development of the best analyzing tools will be based on interviews with teachers who applied Practicum. Positive results achieved through this project will be distributed so it can refer to as many people as possible.In this respect, in addition to the above activities, the online demining will be carried out."

<< Background >>Different research studies (Courtenay y Perera, 2020; Amaral, de Vries, 2020; Ameis et al., 2020) show the negative effects COVID19 is bringing up for autistic people, in areas such as physical and emotional health, employment, family context, and the risk of loss of social skills and development setbacks. Therefore, it is urgent to address the need of designing /reinventing educational services delivery using on line/virtual tools. First observations (Narzisi, 2020) on already developed online attention initiatives, showed up that communication and cognitive difficulties of people with greater support needs, is an extra barrier towards an effective online support implementation.These barriers in accessing digital technologies are mainly caused by a lack of accessible tools; lack of competences (teachers, people with disabilities and their families); poorly adapted educational methodologies; and few technological resources. More specifically, digital tools are often designed for the general population without taking into account the needs of autistic people with lower cognitive levels (levels 1 and 2, according to the American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Tools adapted to the cognitive needs of such individuals through the incorporation of easily readable texts, and use of pictograms and graphic resources are strongly required.Such needs are similar to in relation to training, capacity building and online care methodologies. Another important obstacle is the lack of skills for the use and management of digital technologies by the professionals who attend them, for which adapted training is also required. In this sense, autistic people with lower cognitive levels need to improve their digital skills in order to bridge this gap and successfully use digital resources and technologies. Likewise, support and training for families is also essential. In addition, many autistic people and their families lack from the technological resources to autonomously access digital services such as online training and care.The GAMESS project is in line with the Decree-Law No. 3/2008 and the goals of special education in Denmark. Since 1993, public schools in Denmark, Folkeskolen, have been obliged to differentiate education according to students’ needs in general and not by transferring students to special needs education. However, the development has shown that there is a need for tools to help schools to engage with ordinary teaching to really differentiate the use of methods, educational materials and curricula for students with differences in development, abilities, language and culture. (https://www.european-agency.org/country-information/denmark/systems-of-support-and-specialist-provision). Similarly, in Finland, inclusion is the official educational policy, and since 2018, a new systematic way of organizing support, a so-called three-tiered support model, has been implemented. Rehabilitation and new technology give more opportunities for early rehabilitation and Finland puts attention for new possibilities. For CZA and Miradas organisations, actively working with children with autism, the main motivation to join this project is related to the need to improve quality of life of their students with ASD and fulfil one of the rights from Convention on the Rights of the Child which is related to achieving fullest possible social integration and individual development. STANDO offers teacher trainings to teachers from all over Europe, therefore, this project will help them to bring together the skills of such a diverse set of partners in creating new curricula and expanding their training offer.At the same time, through an exchange of good practices and ideas they will gain valuable knowledge and experiences which will not only contribute to the personal and professional development of their staff, but also to the creation of an innovative and comprehensive training package<< Objectives >>One of the characteristics of children with ASD, ADHD, learning disabilities and other neurodevelopmental disorders is social skills deficiency. Given the idiosyncratic difficulties in the social and emotional understanding of pupils with ASD, teachers may face considerable difficulties in managing their needs, thereby affecting the quality of the teachers’ relationship with these pupils (Emam and Farrell, 2009). Within this context, and considering how important learning social skills from an early age is, and the challenges teachers can face, we propose a project with target group general pre-school /primary school teachers that have in their mainstream classes children with ASD, with the following objectives:*To design, test and publish an innovative Educational Package on GBL for mainstream education teachers (primary school) *To design and create a variety of games- a VR game, and a booklet with a number of group classroom games that promote social skills development in children with autism but also in their neurotypical peers*To deliver a training course to train general primary teachers on GBL and how to use and create a variety of games to teach social skills to children with autism in the mainstream classroom<< Implementation >>The mission of the project is to develop a GBL package for Social Skills specially designed for young children with autism. An integrated approach will be used to accomplish this task. The consortium will start by creating the Social Skills Curriculum (IO1) for primary school teachers complemented by 2 types of games- VR game (PR2), and group classroom games (PR3), as an educational package, which will set up the pathway for teachers effectively teach important social skills to students with autism. Apart from the aforementioned project results, 1 5-day LTTA (C1) will be organised for teachers. During the C1 training the teachers will be trained on how to utilise the PRs to teach children with autism social skills they need to integrate in the community. All PRs will be pilot-tested on the teachers during the LTTA. The pilot testing of the developed PRs will start after the completion of their drafts to allow improvements and modifications during the C1. The teachers with the completion of the training event will give feedback with suggestions for improvements. Besides the PRs and the LTTA, 5 ME will be organised towards the end of the project to disseminate the project results.<< Results >>The project outcomes are directly linked its project results and activities carried out within the project implementation period:1. Project Results: The GBL for Social skills Curriculum, a VR game promoting socials skills, and a booklet with group classroom games promoting social skills, all interconnected. 2. LTTA: 1 training activity for teachers (3 from each country +another 3 at local level) and therefore, at least 18 teachers trained to use GBL (including VR technology) to teach social skills to children with ASD in the mainstream classroom3.5 multiplier events to promote the project, its results and outcomes among teachers and other stakeholders (organisations for people with SEN, teacher organisations, SENCOs, policymakers, and reformers) (E1-E5)Other expected outcomes of the project include:-Each partner will have the opportunity to learn about different aspects of GBL as well as VR technology as an educational tool, as practiced in each partners’ country, exchange good practices and experiences, develop common recommendations and guidelines and improve their competencies in the field of GBL and teaching social skills to children with ASD.-Formation of friendly relations between teachers from Denmark and the other partner countries, exchange of experiences and challenges they face and mutual support regarding the social inclusion of pupils with autism in the mainstream classroom-The project will facilitate the collaboration between key people (trainers, specialists, experts, representatives of local authorities) and teachers from each partner-The project will facilitate the social integration of children with ASD in the mainstream classroom-European international mobility of project participants (field professionals, representatives of target groups) -Social media campaigns -Project participants’ language and social competencies through active transnational communication and participation in project activities-It will raise autism awareness at local and EU levelIt is expected to improve children with ASD’s and their neurotypical peers’ social skillsAdditionally, the project also foresees a set of project management, dissemination, monitoring and evaluation, and coordination results. Once the project is completed the partnership will disseminate its results and will transfer the developed practices and educational products in other contexts and educational fields. Moreover, the PRs will be used in partners' institutional activities with other teachers working with children with ASD.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a disorder that affects every individual to a different degree. It can be termed as a lifelong complex developmental disorder, which is characterised by a triad of qualitative impairments in social communication, social interaction and social imagination (Wing & Gould, 1979). In addition to these impairments, ASD people often struggle with sensory hyper- or hypo- sensitivity to visual, auditory, tactile, proprioceptive, gustatory and olfactory stimuli (Hinder 2004). Epidemiological studies estimate that 1 in 59 births is likely to include a child with characteristics of the autism spectrum in the near future (Schendel, Thorsteinsson, 2018). Although nearly half (44%) of students with ASD fall in the typical range or above on cognitive ability, many of them are placed in mainstream classrooms (Bolourian, et.al. 2019). And although placement in general education has been shown to be beneficial for many students with ASD and is often preferred by parents, mainstream teachers receive little specialised training on how to effectively manage students with ASD (or related developmental disorders) in the classroom.It is, therefore, clear that teachers throughout Europe are likely to encounter a student with ASD in the mainstream class. Autism in the classroom is hard for teachers to deal with, especially as many children on the spectrum have accompanying learning disabilities or other conditions such as ADHD, pathological demand avoidance (PDA), epilepsy, learning difficulties (www.autism.org.uk/). Professionals support that it takes hard work to help a child with autism get the most out of the classroom experience. It also takes a good dose of structure and the understanding that every child with ASD is unique, which means each child has different styles of learning (www.webmd.com). Although recently much has been researched about how children with ASD learn, there is not one educational or treatment program for them (Schriber, Robins, Solomon, 2014) and this population is at heightened risk for poor academic outcomes, especially due to the social and behavioural difficulties they display (Bolourian, Stavropoulos & Blacher, 2019). Existing trainings for school teachers provide little knowledge considered necessary to understand the behaviours of students with ASD (Horrocks, White & Roberts, 2008). Many teachers report a lack of training or readiness to teach students with ASD (Valentini, 2010). Although children with autism stand a greater chance of doing better in the mainstream classroom (McAllister, 2010), many schools are unprepared to accommodate them, as evidenced by the number of legal disputes with families of students with ASD (Bolourian et.al., 2019).Consequently, the need to prepare mainstream teachers in evidence-based approaches and practices to enhance the academic and social learning opportunities for these children is imperative. Therefore, having as target group primary school teachers, we propose a project with the following objectives:•Design, test and publish an innovative educational package (curriculum, handbook, activity book for teachers, classroom management/ reinforcement software for children, Infographics, e-Learning platform) on evidence-based teaching approaches (based on Applied Behaviour Analysis-ABA) for primary school teachers that will guide and support their teaching of children with autism integrated in the mainstream classroom •To provide quality training to primary school teachers on how to utilise the innovative educational package in the mainstream classroom to understand, assess and manage behaviours of children with autism and create individualised behaviour support plans to prevent and/or de-escalate their challenging behaviours The project results are directly linked to intellectual outputs and activities carried out within the project implementation period. & partners from Lithuania, Spain, Czech Republic, Italy, Croatia, Cyprus, and The Republic of North Macedonia, will work together to achieve the following results:1.The “A” Class Educational Package including a Curriculum (IO1) and Handbook (IO2) for primary school teachers, an Activity book for teachers (IO3), classroom management/ reinforcement software for children with autism (IO4), Infographics (IO5), all interconnected. 2.An e-learning platform3.A set of 2 e-Learning courses4.35 trained (C1) Trainers5.35 primary school teachers6.7 multiplier events (6 multiplier events and 1 Final Conference) to promote the project, its intellectual outputs and its outcomes