Search for European Projects

Helping Students with Learning Disabilities - Dyslexia
Start date: Sep 1, 2016, End date: Aug 31, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Dyslexia (specific impairment regarding reading/writing skills) is an increasing problem affecting children as well as adults (estimated prevalence 8-20%). The long-term effects from it are higher youth unemployment rates, functional illiteracy, high rate of unfinished vocational trainings. According to the European Dyslexia Association, 8% of the population suffers from dyslexia, although some experts claim that the percentage reaches 20%, of which between 2 and 4% are seriously affected.Dyslexia is a functional illiteracy. According to UNESCO, the number of functional illiterates varies from 10% up to 30% in EU. Today, experts estimate that up to 25 million workers in Europe are affected by this problem. On the other hand, dyslexia in the adulthood means a lifetime of underachievement, frustration and often unemployment. Today is well known that the long-term effects of dyslexia on education and labour market are enormous, e.g. higher youth unemployment rates (12%). While this is the general situation of the problem, there is still no common frame of recognized curriculum in most of the EU countries. Experts believe that the problem may be more severe and less known in Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania and Greece, where the knowledge about methodologies to detect the problem is insufficient. There is lack of dyslexia experts and of specific didactic tools in Bulgarian, Romanian, Turkish and Greek. Although several projects within the EU concerning dyslexia have been realized, a general frame toward comparable standards in training is still missing. In this context, the lack of a quality common curriculum in EU is a problem, which leads to different implementations and rather poor results. Particularly in Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania and Greece teachers and parents are often not able to pick up the symptoms that indicate dyslexia or other learning disorders, which, consequently, are diagnosed very late, or even not being identified and diagnosed as such. EUPALT was a successful EU project which successfully approached this problem, covering different levels of education and developing training tools. The products developed in the frame of EUPALT include a country based self-assessment tool; an online resource center and an e-learning course. Target groups of EUPALT project are therapists and teachers working with people with dyslexia. The Understand & Teach project aims to build on the achievements of the EPLAUT and add new tests and learning tools supporting the teachers, trainers, and parents of dyslexic children. Having in mind that the materials and tests of the EPLAUT are only in English, German and Portuguese all the EPLAUT compendium of knowledge and the new tools and materials will be translated in Bulgarian, Turkish, Romanian and Greek. This will give wider access to the knowledge and expertise for identifying and fighting dyslexia in the respective countries and will greatly enlarge the number of direct and indirect beneficiaries of the project. Main aims of the UNDERSTAND & TEACH project is:• Adaptation of the curriculum developed in the frame of EUPALT project to kindergarten/primary school teachers, providing reliable knowledge on dyslexia as well as physiological (psychologists, psychiatrists) and educational consequences and the barriers faced by dyslexic individuals in accessing education and labour market along with ways of eliminating them.• Equipping teachers, tutors and others who have a duty of care towards dyslexic students with the ability to teach and support them successfully and efficiently.• Creation of a network of stakeholders at local and regional level for raising awareness about dyslexia and other learning disorders, for keeping the attention of decision makers and other relevant institutions about the negative impact of learning disorders on the course of education, training and employment of people.• Developing an active attitude in teachers and managers supporting dyslexic individuals as regards access to knowledge and the labour market.

Looking for a partnership?
Have a look at
Ma Région Sud!
https://maregionsud.up2europe.eu

Coordinator

Details

6 Partners Participants