Regional special education centers not only organize seminars and provide practical advice to teachers and educational support specialists who come to the center, but also conduct mobile consultations, when the center’s team of specialists, upon receiving a request from the school, goes to solve specific challenges for the student and the school. Parents can also apply here for free consultations on how to help their special children feel as good as possible in an educational institution.
All 9 regional special education centers were created on the basis of older, experienced special schools. This aims to create a consultation network so that help for the child, teacher and school is more accessible, as both teachers and parents can consult with more experienced and competent professionals.
One of such new regional special education centers is the “Šviesos” education center in Panevėžys, which has been educating children and young people with mental and complex disabilities for several decades. Rasa Ramanauskienė, deputy director of the center for education, said that consulting activities are not new to them: the center has been operating since 2015. provided educational support and counseling services, but now there will be more staff and opportunities to provide support.
The situation is similar in the Vilnius “Šilo” educational center, whose specialists have accumulated vast experience in educating children with intellectual disabilities and now operate as a regional center for special education. Its director Asta Stulgaitienė said that from 2020 the center implemented the activities of the Vilnius municipality’s plan of measures for the availability of quality educational services for all children of the city and provided consultations to the general education institutions of the city of Vilnius facing difficulties in educating students with special educational needs. Now the region served by the center is larger than just the city of Vilnius, and the number of specialists working in it will increase.
Regional special education centers are tasked with helping school communities to apply the principles of inclusion in education in their assigned regions.
The advisory teams of the centers advise and advise schools on how to implement the recommendations of pedagogical psychological services, adapt educational content, organize and provide educational assistance, adapt teaching methods and tools, select and use special technical assistance tools, and adapt the educational environment.
Regional special education centers organize seminars and provide practical advice to school teams that have come to the center. It also conducts mobile consultations, when the center’s team, after receiving a school request, goes to observe and analyze the situation in the student’s learning environment.
Consultations are provided in the centers themselves. Parents of students experiencing difficulties can apply to the “Šviesas” educational center in Panevėžys, as well as the services of a speech therapist, a special pedagogue, a social pedagogue, and a psychologist for children with special educational needs (until now, 10 classes were given per academic year, now there will be 15).
“With the acceleration of inclusive education, more and more schools turn to us for help, because they saw that our specialists can help and give useful advice. Word of mouth spread that it was worth going to the center for help. Parents of students are also increasingly seeking help after hearing that it is really effective. Now we feel really needed. Recently, those who wanted consultations already had to wait – and now, with the establishment of regional special education centers, help should be more easily available”, said R. Ramanauskienė.
Knows what works in practice
A. Stulgaitienė said that regional special education centers advise schools on providing assistance to students with multiple developmental disorders, intellectual disabilities, learning disorders and movement and posture disorders. R.Ramanauskienė notices that the specialists of the center she represents are usually consulted for the education of children with multifaceted developmental disorders and behavioral and emotional disorders.
Both interviewees emphasized that it is important that consultations are provided by specialists (psychologists, special pedagogues, speech therapists, occupational therapists) who have been working practically with children with various special educational needs in educational centers for many years, so they have a good understanding of what is effective in practice.
“Our center also organizes seminars for educators who work with children of various abilities. After the trainings, we often get feedback that they were really useful, because they contained little theory and a lot of advice from real practical experience”, remarked R.Ramanauskienė.
And he added that often, upon arrival at schools where children with special educational needs face challenges, it turns out that pedagogues have theoretical knowledge and have attended training, but fail to apply it in practice. For example, there is a visual agenda and class rules in the classroom, but they hang somewhere on the side and are practically unused – and when you start relying on them, you really notice a better result (visual presentation of information provides much more clarity for children on the autism spectrum, with learning disabilities).
Works throughout Lithuania
From 2023 8 regional special education centers operated in Lithuania during the school year, from this September there will be nine of them. They all bring together educational support specialists and help educational institutions to implement inclusive education and to solve the challenges that arise during it.
“All children have the right to education. And we believe in the successful inclusion of students with special educational needs in mainstream schools. They are the same children, with their own joys, expectations, needs. If the environment is properly prepared, the child’s individual abilities are taken into account and the learning material and methodology are adapted, his learning will be successful. During consultations, our team of specialists works with the situation for as long as the specialists raising the child take over the consultants’ experience and can apply it independently,” said A. Stulgaitienė.
List of centers
Vilnius Šila Special Education Center advises Šalčininkų district, Vilnius city. and Vilnius district municipalities.
Panevėžys “Light” education center – Biržų district, Kėdainiai district, Kupiškio district, Panevėžys city, Panevėžys district, Pasvalio district. and Rokiškis r. municipalities.
St. Kaunas Rock school – Birštonos, Kaunas city, Kaunas district, Prienu district. municipalities.
Klaipėda “Medeinės” school – Klaipėda city, Klaipėda district, Neringa and Šilutė districts. municipalities.
Šiauliai “Santakos” education center – Akmenė district, Joniškio district, Kelmės district, Pakruojo district, Radviliškio district, Šiauliai city. and Šiauliai r. municipalities.
Gelgaudiškis “Šaltinius” education center – Jurbarka district, Kalvarija, Kazlų Rūda, Marijampolė, Pagėgiai, Raseiniai district, Šakių district, Tauragė district. and Vilkaviškis r. municipalities.
St. Kaisiadori Faustina’s education center – Alytus city, Alytus district, Druskininkai, Elektrėnai, Kaišiador ių district, Lazdija district, Trakai district. and Varėna district. municipalities.
Plungė special education center – Kretinga district, Mažeikiai district, Palanga city, Plungė district, Rietavo, Skuodo district, Šilalė district. and Telšiai r. municipalities.
Ukmergė “Ryto” education center – Anykščių district, Ignalina district, Jonava district, Molėtų district, Širvinto district, Švenčioni district, Ukmergė district, Utena district, Visaginas and Zarasu districts. municipalities.
2024-08-27 14:02:28