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Published on: 05 Oct 2022
Inclusion & Wellbeing Forum Newsletter
May 2022 - Latest Recording HERE
Living in the UAE we have one of the world’s richest populations of culturally diverse peoples. Held every year on 21 May, the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development celebrates not only the richness of the world’s cultures, but also the essential role of intercultural dialogue for achieving peace and sustainable development. The United Nations General Assembly first declared this World Day in 2002, following UNESCO’s adoption of the 2001 Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, recognizing the need to “enhance the potential of culture as a means of achieving prosperity, sustainable development and global peaceful coexistence.”
Adidas drive inclusive Sports Ad Campaign
With a new campaign, Adidas is calling on marathons to set aside bib number 321 — a figure associated with Down syndrome — for neurodivergent runners and one of the country’s biggest races is already on board.
The bib number will be reserved for Chris Nikic at the Boston Marathon on April 18, Adidas said. In 2020, Nikic became the first person with Down syndrome to complete an Ironman.
Music can help Students with ASD access the curriculum
Studies show that children with autism can understand both simple and complex emotions in music and are more responsive to sensory stimulation compared with other children – especially in music, even over speech or noise. This may explain why some children with autism are musical savants.
Music can have a positive impact on children with autism in several ways. Educators can use songs to reinforce speech in students with autism that struggle with language. One technique is to sing with vocabulary cards in order to teach vocabulary skills. Research shows that singing can considerably improve language skills in students with a type of autism that has language delays.
Resources are available online for use with children with autism. They are exciting programs and easy to obtain. To introduce your late elementary or older child to the orchestra’s instruments and timbres check out:
? Khan Academy Music Unit: Instruments of the Orchestra. This will allow your child to emotionally connect to each of the instruments and the whole orchestra, and the child will gradually learn to express the emotions that a piece of music represents.
? Chrome Music Lab, Easy Music iOS or Easy Music Android are ideal for young children with autism because several apps on this site allow the child to explore music by the musical element without the music becoming overwhelming. The child can experiment by adding elements a little at a time, as tolerated, allowing them to learn at their own pace and grow.
? For an older child, Yousician and Flowkey are great places online where your child can have interactive music lessons. Children with autism may be able to express themselves through their instrument, even when they cannot speak the words they want to say.
Dubai has introduced a factsheet that will give parents a complete breakdown of the mandatory and optional fees they pay to their child's school in an academic year. It will provide parents of private school pupils with comprehensive and reliable information about school fee. The sheet will be a one-page reference that includes all fees a school may charge during an academic year. Read more HERE
About one in 100 children globally is believed to be on the autism spectrum, the World Health Organisation says. In April 2021, the UAE Cabinet approved the National Policy for People with Autism. It set out ways to provide people with autism with easy access to services, to ensure their inclusion in education and wider society, and to train more qualified professionals while bolstering community awareness. The policy comprises 14 initiatives across five pillars of diagnosis, health care, human resources, inclusive education, and community awareness and empowerment. Advocates like The Butterfly help families avoid these astronomical bills by connecting them with the right, affordable support.
We at Incluzun are looking forward to presenting at the Optimus Education (part of Shaw Trust) Inclusion & Wellbeing MENA conference where we will talk about Effective use of Data for Inclusive practice. On day two we have a session specifically for Learning Support Assistants looking at key skills and methods to use to support our most vulnerable students. Come and join us - register at https://lnkd.in/dTAQMQBP.
This pilot study set out to examine the impact of a regular practice of yoga within schooling curricular hours on the well-being and behaviors of atypically developing children. The research site was a special needs school in South Auckland, New Zealand in an area characterized by poor socio-economic living conditions with a composite range of different ethnic groups. The findings of this study suggest that a regular practice of yoga can have numerous benefits for children on the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). They found yoga to be a fun-filled and engaging experience. They improved significantly in their flexibility levels and general physical health. Emotionally, the children reported that the breathing techniques allowed them to feel calmer and more relaxed. The children felt that incorporating a regular practice of yoga within formal curriculum will be another effective tool to enhancing their overall health and well-being. Check out the article HERE
The heirs of the late Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid have given Dh15 million to the American University of Sharjah (AUS) in honour of the UAE's first woman teacher, Sheikha Nama Majid Al Qassimi.
The Sheikha Nama Majid Al Qassimi Endowed Chair in Education Across Disciplines will support an educational and research programme to train future generations from multiple perspectives.
Free webinar on Managing Challenging Behaviour for schools
This awesome Webinar demonstrates usable and practical tips for supporting students behaviour. Check it out HERE.
Free Live Webinars in Education
Education UAE have some awesome articles in their current issue
No Pens Wednesday at Brighton Abu Dhabi highlights the importance of multiple options for expression or task completion in schools. Read about this interesting initiative and many more in the current issue.
Teach Middle East: Learning to Lead in Eduction
Top Tips of growing leadership skills HERE
Dublin City University Kick Off Teacher Work Placement for STEM hands-on experience
Dublin City University kicked off the 2022 STEM Teacher Internship (STInt) programme in DCU St. Patrick’s Campus on Wednesday, 30th March. The ‘Meet & Greet’ event was attended by this year’s incoming STInt interns and industry partners as well as programme supporters. The 2022 programme is the biggest to date with 61 interns completing 12-week paid internships in STEM roles in 30 leading organisations. The interns will work across a range of contexts this summer including fully remote, onsite and hybrid.
To date, the programme has placed 175 pre-service and in-service STEM teachers in hands-on roles in 40 of Ireland’s leading companies. The 2022 host organisations are AbbVie, Accenture, AIB, Alexion, APC & VLE Therapeutics, Astellas, Bank of Ireland, Boston Scientific, Citi Bank, Cúram, Deloitte, DIAS Dunsink Observatory, Ericsson, ESB, EY, Fidelity Investments, IBM, Intel, Irish Water, Jabil, Microsoft, MSD, PwC, Simply Blue Group, SSE Airtricity, Stryker, VistaMilk, Vodafone and Xilinx.
To read more about this amazing initiative click HERE.
Next Inclusion & Wellbeing Forum
Innovations in Research
Attitudes of classmates has been considered as one of the major problems in inclusive education, negatively influencing the participation of students with disability in school contexts. The goal of this study was to examine Italian typically developing children's attitudes towards their peers with disabilities. The results of our study suggested the impact of the type of information provided to students about disabilities on their attitudes. Particular emphasis should be given to the way in which children with disabilities are presented to typically developing classmates, and information provided should stimulate a positive image of peers with disabilities.
Research suggests that reading for understanding, especially narrative text, is difficult for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); yet research on how to effectively teach skills associated with reading comprehension is limited and has generally deemphasized vocabulary interventions. This single case research design study (i.e., a multiple probe across behaviors design) examined the effectiveness of teaching emotion vocabulary words to children with ASD aged 6 to 7 years old. Vocabulary knowledge was taught explicitly during the repeated reading of storybooks illustrating the target emotion words. Results showed all participants increased their ability to label and define the target emotion words. Moreover, the classroom teacher indicated the intervention improved participant understanding of emotion words. Implications and future research are discussed.
Who to follow this month
Thought leaders are those who excel in their profession and create and share content for educational and motivational purposes. Thought leaders within education generate motivation and create better pathways for learning, calling the very best from our schools and universities.
Karen Gross a former education policy advisor in the Obama administration, a trauma educator and author of books for adults and children. Karen speaks about student success, improving educational leadership and handling educational crises.
Reading
Please do follow our 
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Page - we will use this page to share important information - celebrate our students and our practice.
As always, we welcome your input, please do let us know if you have a good idea you want to share- if you have used a tool or app that has supported your students or staff in a meaningful way or if you can talk about pitfalls to avoid. We are always seeking speakers to contribute.
Thank you all who have been sharing, please do like and share and help us spread inclusion & wellbeing far and wide!
Please do let us know if you have any other topics that you would like to address particularly.
We are here to share, no one has the perfect answer, only what works in your setting.
© Incluzun.com
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