There is a great number of children with various disabilities in the Municipality of Godech, which puts forward the necessity of creating a special Consultative Centre, providing educational, psychological and consultative services to the children. Only within the officially registered in the schools 650 children, more than 3o suffer from speech disorder, slight mental disabilities.
There is a disabled children school in the Municipality of Godech, where at present learn around 80 children from the Sofia region. The school has excellent specialists, able to provide integrated education to the children with special educational needs, but the existing material facility, such as specialised cabinets and equipments, is highly insufficient. Another problem, which hinders the provision of quality and effective care and work for the disabled children, is the attitude among the parents of these children, who would not speak up about their children s problems and would rather keep silent about this issue, thus not receiving professional and timely support, necessary to their children. This creates even more obstacles and barriers in the efforts to ensure all the needed care and special attention to these children, who participate in the regular learning process, but need some additional professional assistance in order to keep up with it and improve their existing disabilities.
On the territory of the Municipality of Godech there was not a specialised centre, which could offer support to the integrated learning process of children with special educational needs, while the number of these children grew up every year. In order to offer a solution to this problem, the project focused its objectives on the creation of a consultative child centre, which provides large variety of psychological, diagnostic and educational support to disabled children. The Centre offers a new approach, including individual and group therapy, psychological parents` support, methodological assistance through the process of every day care for a mentally disabled child, as well as training the teachers from the local schools how to work with the disabled children with special educational needs and help them progress in the learning process. These activities helped the development and improvement of the disabled children according to their personal potential and abilities; in addition these initiatives helped their better social integration.
The Consultative Centre has been established within the Community Centre building, in the town of Godech. Two specialised consultative cabinets have been equipped with the relevant facilities allowing for effective work with the children. A team of professionals working in various areas has been formed: psychology, social pedagogy, legal issues, speech disabilities, etc. These specialists provided consultations to students and children, to the parents of disabled children and also their teachers. A large number of group and individual therapies have been organised within the Centre. In order to encourage the informal ways of social life and encourage the children to be included in more creative and sportive events, the project initiated the formation of several interest groups, such as folklore dancing, volleyball and folklore singing.
As a result from these activities, there are few new and interesting forms for the children to make better use of their after-school time and more than 45 youngsters are involved in these leisure time activities.
Throughout the project implementation, more tan 20 educational, 78 psychological consultations have been provided to disabled children and their parents, as well as to children at risk and with deviant behaviour. The children s teachers have also been involved. More than 130 consultations have been provided to children with speech disorders, working regularly to improve their pronunciation and speech abilities. More than 10 educational consultations have been offered to 4 students with special educational needs. 6 other children with psychological difficulties attended the consultations at the Centre and received the professional help from the specialists.
Within the project has been established the first Consultative Centre providing services and support to children with special educational needs in the town of Godech. In addition to that the general information and awareness among the population towards the problems and needs of the disabled children and their families have been increased. The parents of these children could easier overcome the existing psychological barrier and look for professional support for their children. Moreover, the work with the children at the Centre increased the possibilities for their equal social integration and successful participation in the learning process.
For a fist time the parents of the disabled children and their teachers were taking part in common initiative, directed towards the improvement of the living and social environment of the children, taking into account their specific needs.
Contacts:
Velin Ivanov
Town of Godech
Tel.: (0729) 2368
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