A Beautiful End to a Wonderful Project
We had the pleasure of presenting at the final seminar of our PT4ASD project in Serbia on the 30th & 31st October '24.
Our project PT4ASD primary aim was to create a physical games program and handbook to help and assist children with autism with school based learning through physical play and improving communication and social interaction. We achieved everything we set out to achieve and more - our program is now active in Ireland, Serbia, Turkey, Spain, Greece and Denmark.
PT4ASD – Physical Therapy for ASD - National Dissemination
We were recently honoured to present our PT4ASD project at Ardcroney National School in Tipperary, as part of our national dissemination efforts. Ardcroney is a small, rural school staffed by 10 dedicated teachers and special needs assistants. This close-knit, supportive environment allowed us to engage deeply with the staff.
During our visit, we had the opportunity to walk through the PT4ASD handbook in great detail, providing a comprehensive overview of the resources available. We also facilitated interactive sessions where participants played all of the games we developed for the project. This hands-on approach fostered a deeper understanding of the materials and opened up a space for rich discussions.
The smaller group setting enabled us to gather valuable feedback on the games and activities, with suggestions for potential adaptations and improvements. These insights were particularly helpful in refining our approach, ensuring that our tools are as effective and accessible as possible for children with ASD.
We were pleased to receive highly positive feedback from the staff, and the exchange of ideas left us all feeling inspired. Both the school team and our project team learned new perspectives, reinforcing the importance of collaboration in delivering meaningful, inclusive physical therapy solutions for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Progress and Handbook Workshop in Greece added 04.06.2024
We had the pleasure of attending and presenting at the latest meeting of the PT4ASD European project in Katerini Greece. The topic of the meeting was to discuss our progress so far and present the completed Games Manuals in six languages.
We were very honoured to head up this particular part of the project and are very proud of the finished product.
This Parent/Teacher Handbook introduces the reader to the world of adapted learning practices for school going children who have a wide range of abilities and disabilities. It combines a number of very important aspects, such as, education, learning through play, socialisation and physical activity. It further aims to help develop communication & negotiation skills, teamwork, flexibility, critical & creative thinking and problem solving.
Our objectives were to create physically active game ideas to assist in the areas of education, social & emotion development and balance & coordination. In addition, the handbook has a range of multi skill game ideas that use physical activity as a tool for developing a range of positive attributes.
While on our trip we had the opportunity to visit a number of breath-taking locations including the highest mountain in Greece, Mount Olympus.
This project continues until the end of the year, with our final meeting in Belgrade, Serbia in October.
We thank our Greek hosts from Platon Private School in Katerini for their fantastic hospitality. Everything about this trip was beautiful, the location, the food, the weather, the project progress, our European partners from Türkiye, Serbia, Greece, Denmark, Spain and of course our Irish team.
These EU funded projects are an amazing way to produce real solutions for real challenges. This particular project will hopefully equip institutions working with students with ASD with effective strategies and skills that can help these students develop and maintain their social, emotional, and non-verbal communication skills in a safe and physically active environment.
Train the Trainer Workshop in Spain added 12.12.2023
The latest meeting of our PT4ASD Erasmus project took place in the beautiful city of Granada, Spain last week. The topic was train the trainer in the project, Physical Therapy (activity) as a tool for developing social, emotional, non-verbal communication and relationships skills for young people with ASD.
Representing Judo Assist Ireland, our team had the great pleasure of presenting at this event. Our presentation was on the Parent/Teacher educational games handbook which we are producing for the project.
Huge thanks to our hosts, Agifodent, Granada and our partners from Turkey, Serbia, Greece, Spain and Denmark.
Newspaper Coverage of Project Meeting in Ireland added 09.06.2023
Great write up in this weeks Nenagh Guardian about our European Autism Conference last month. We are so proud to be part of the European development of programmes that will make a real difference to the lives of people with additional needs and challenges
