Address: Rua 3 de março

Country: Portugal

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Project: Educate for the resilience: a journey with deafness children

Working language during the project:

• Portuguese and Portuguese sign language
   

Themes of the Council of Europe campaign “FREE to SPEAK, SAFE to LEARN - Democratic Schools for All” covered:

• Improving well-being at school
   

Competences from the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (CDC) addressed and where / how they were integrated:

• Flexibility and adaptability
  The European Curriculum for Resilience (RESCUR) was created to provide a response to social, cultural and economic challenges that European children face daily. This curriculum is founded in the idea that teaching children the skills to surpass challenges related to poverty, mobility, unemployment, family stress, discrimination, bullying, violence and social exclusion is an investment in the development of a future generation of resilient citizens (Cefai et al., 2015).
  In order to promote the development of competencies and the exchange of experiences to enable deaf students to easily identify with each other and come up with emotional and relational strategies, RESCUR has been adapted and implemented for this population taking into account their characteristics and specificities: mindfulness with emphasis on the senses: touch and smell; short stories and role-play; more objective and concise questions; time of the sessions/activities; parallelism with P.S.L (Portuguese Sign Language)
   
• Co-operation skills
  The Curriculum was implemented in partnership with each class teacher, therapy speaker, sign language teacher, project coordinator, child and respective family.
  The curriculum was implemented with both hearing and deaf children, in oral Portuguese and Portuguese sign language to promote the integration, cooperation and acceptance.
   
• Empathy
  In this curriculum we improve areas such as establishing and maintaining healthy relationships, developing communication skills which promotes empathy. The dynamics promote empathy also: drama, roll-play, group work.
   

Target group age range:

• 5 - 11 and
• 11 - 15

Level of education:

• Primary education

Short description of the project:

Deaf children are not able to acquire social and emotional learning spontaneously such as children who are able to hear. Resilience is one of the elements that significantly influences the quality of life of deaf children.

The European Curriculum for Resilience, also known as RESCUR, was created to provide a response to social, cultural and economic challenges that European children face daily. This curriculum is founded in the idea that teaching children the skills to surpass challenges related to poverty, mobility, unemployment, family stress, discrimination, bullying, violence and social exclusion is an investment in the development of a future generation of resilient citizens (Cefai, 2015).

In view of this fact, there has been an adaptation and implementation of RESCUR – the European Curriculum for the promotion of resilience in deaf children.

The curriculum encompasses mindfulness activities, exploration of daily resilience situations, practical and multisensorial activities such as drawing and drama, sharing of ideas, homework activities that promote cooperative work between students and their parents and evaluation checklists.

The programme was implemented through 12 sessions integrated into the students’ weekly school schedule for two semesters, in partnership with the educators and researcher and teachers of each class. Each session lasted 90 minutes and was dynamised through simple and accessible Portuguese Sign Language.

In 2016/2017, the adapted curriculum was implemented in a bilingual school in the south of Portugal – Agrupamento de Escolas João de Deus - Faro, with 4 classes: 1 preschool classes, two classes of the first cycle and a class from the second cycle.

In 2017/2018, the adapted curriculum was implemented in a bilingual school in central Portugal – Agrupamento de Escolas Coimbra Centro - Coimbra, with two classes of the first cycle.

In 2018/2019, the adapted curriculum was implemented in a school in northern Portugal – Agrupamento de Escolas Joaquim de Araújo - Penafiel, with two groups in preschool and primary school, for both hearing and deaf students.

The development of resilience is a health asset.

In 2019/2020 the curriculum is still being implement with both hearing and deaf students in Penafiel.

Language, communication and vocabulary are challenges that must be overcome in the implementation of these programmes. They deserve a more careful look through the lens of development and well-being promotion.
 

Aims/objectives

• Adaptation and implementation of RESCUR;
• Improve the pro-social behaviour;
• Improve cooperation;
• Improve empathy;
• Improve health relationships;
• Improve communication and friendship between hearing and deaf children;
• Decrease emotional symptoms;
• Decrease behavioural problems.
   

Expected results/outcomes

For this study different evaluation instruments were used: qualitative instruments through interviews with families and focus groups with students and teachers and quantitative instruments through: CYRM - Child & Youth Resilience Measures ((Liebenberg, Ungar, & Van de Vijver, 2012); SDQ - Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaires (Goodman, 2001) and Kidscreen (HBSC Positive Health Focus Group, 2009).

Some of the results are under analysis, in particular those collected in Penafiel. This way, only the data collected in the other schools are presented, namely from the schools in central and southern Portugal.

The results of SDQ in the two evaluations showed a decrease in emotional symptoms, hyperactivity, behavioural problems and relationship problems with their peers, and an increase in pro-social behaviour. Nevertheless, these differences weren’t statistically significant.

The data collected through the interviews showed that all the students said that they liked these sessions and mentioned their importance in their lives. Examples of such responses are: These classes allowed me “to be aware”, “to learn how to express myself”, “to apologise”, “to show gratitude”, “not to lie”, “to respect the opinion of others and their properties”, “to say that I disagree”, “to realise my goals and desires in life”, “to calm myself down”, “to help”, “to show my concern”, “to know myself better”, “to be happy”.

All the students said their homework, which was done with their family, was a very important element because it allowed them to “talk with their families about their problems”, “share our lives”, “increase communication”.

All the students considered mindfulness activities important because it: “can calm me down”, “the breathing makes me calm and calms the heart”, “makes me feel good”, “makes me not feel nervous”.

All parents said that this project promoted important skills for the children. They also explained that it would be beneficial to continue this project because it “promotes child development”, “communication” and “helps children to respect others”; helps children to feel good; helps children to be aware of their own behaviour; “helps children to be aware of others and to their own obstacles.”

Half of the parents noticed significant differences in their children: more “obedient”, “respectful”, “communicative”, “assertive”; “responsible”.
 

Changes

The children who participated in this project became more communicative, more expansive and expressive. They behaved more confidently around their peers and they showed more responsibility for their studies. Teachers, families and their children were aware of good changes to their attitudes.
 

Challenges you faced

• Motivating deaf children´s parents to communicate efficiently with their children.
• Involving all parents.
   

Time-frame of the project:

1 year

Council of Europe materials on citizenship and human rights education used while preparing or implementing your practice: