Parents concerned about food and sleep issues during the second parent training sessions in Croatia

14947807_10154067705197444_1775828133873721119_n

The second parent training sessions have been delivered in different locations in the city of Zagreb, Croatia, from the 9 to the 13 November 2016, as part of the Equity and Social Inclusion through Positive Parenting project (ESIPP), co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme. Around 50 participants attended the different sessions given by both local and ESIPP trainers from Cyprus and the UK. The first part of the training, which facilitates a positive approach to autism as well as helping to manage challenging behaviour, took place in April 2016.

The kindergarten of Centar za Autizam was the venue were Croatian home trainee trainers Sanja Blazevic and Ana Ruzic delivered the first module of the second ESIPP training sessions (Visual Support) for those parents who could not attend the first sessions in April but were interested in education. The Cypriot trainers supervised the session and answered numerous questions after the presentation.

On the second day, ESIPP trainers Angela Winstanley and Nefi Charalambous – Darden from Cyprus had the opportunity to delight parents with some non-core modules (Exploring Food, Mealtime Issues and Sleep Issues), which were very well attended by 40 parents and professionals. Afterwards, parents suggested adding more content on the wider training programme and were keen to explore key issues with ESIPP trainers. Lots of parents asked questions and expressed the need for some more practical advice.

The third day included the presentation “Adolescence and sexuality” given by ESIPP coordinator David Preece. The presentation was held in the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation, which was also very well attended both by parents and professionals.

The modules making up the second day of the training (Sensory, Communication and Social development /Interaction) were delivered over the weekend for the same group of  20 parents of children with autism in the Centre for Rehabilitation (Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, Campus Borongaj).  ESIPP trainers Winstanley and Charalambous – Darden from AASP delivered this training together with home trainers Ruzic, Sanja Blazevic (Center for Autism, Zagreb), Ivanka Pejic, Ana Radovic (Center for Autism, Rijeka and the Association for the Care of Autistic People, Rijeka), psychologist Ivana Sladic Kljajic (Center for autism, Zagreb) and Ph.D. Jasmina Stosic (Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences).

ESIPP partners foresee a minimum of 18 courses which will be run during the lifetime of the project – 6 courses each in CroatiaCyprus and the FYR of Macedonia. Together with this session in Croatia, two other sessions were also delivered to groups of 20 participants per session. In Skopje, FYR of Macedonia, it was delivered from the 29 September to the 3 October, with ESIPP trainers Angela Capper and Ron Fortuna from Target Autism travelling from UK to support local educators. On the 15-16 October, ESIPP coordinator David Preece from the UK, and Ruzic and Blazevic from Croatia, travelled to Cyprus to support local educators.

Recent Posts