Conference: “Comprehensive Care for Pupils with Combined Handicaps”
Faculty of Education, Charles University, Prague
20–21 October 2006
The conference “Comprehensive Care for Pupils with Combined Handicaps” was organized by the Zahrádka Primary School in collaboration with the Special Education Department at Charles University’s Faculty of Education. It was held under the auspices of the faculty’s dean, Pavel Beneš, and Member of the European Parliament Zuzana Roithová. The conference was held as part of the faculty’s 60th anniversary.
The aim of the conference was to provide special education teachers and representatives of the helping professions information regarding legislative changes in special education, inform them of new methods for working with children with several handicaps, and provide a place for meeting and for sharing experiences.
Participants from the Czech Republic and Slovakia heard expert lectures on the subjects of teaching pupils with combined handicaps, these children’s diagnoses, systems of holistic therapy, and caring for caregivers. They also visited three special facilities (the Zahrádka Primary School and Zahrada Integration Center, the Modrý klíč association, and painter Zdeněk Hajný’s “Paths to the Light” gallery). The lecture on structured learning in the autistic classroom was accompanied by a music performance by pupils from Zahrádka Primary School. The conference’s second day featured six specialized workshops on the subjects of new therapeutic methods and questions of alternative communication (canine therapy as part of comprehensive care, synergetic reflex therapy, craniosacral therapy, chirophonetics, alternative communication, practical use of teaching aides, and the Bobath concept for children with cerebral palsy).
The conference was attended by 147 people (138 from the Czech Republic, nine from Slovakia), most of whom (127) work in special education. Attendees included representatives of the faculty of education in Bratislava and the State Institute of Education. A large number of participants (86) were students of special education Charles University’s Faculty of Education.
The conference met its objectives; it received high marks for its program, for the level of quality of its lectures, and for the workshops’ relevance to everyday practice.
