Background and Purpose:

Background

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health ( ICF,WHO 2002 ) is a classification of health and disability.
The ICF-CY (Children/Youth with 1400 items) represents WHO's quality framework for assessments for children.

Need

Despite political will in EU27 the implementation of ICF-CY into training and practice is poorly performed, especially in complex teams, where diverse professionals work together, like in Early Childhood Intervention (ECI).

The specificity of ECI is the provision of a team support (MD, psychologist, special educator) to children with SEN (special educational needs) prevent further disability (3-4% of children; Eurydice).
OECD recognized a EU-wide problem with these vulnerable children, pointing out a lack of standards and of comparable assessment tools.
Particularly children from ethnic minorities or socio-economical disadvantaged background are at risk (see also Daffodil project).

The EU-Agency on Special Needs Education (2005/2010) recognized that EU countries are moving to scenarios where initial assessment of needs in ECI is conducted by transdisciplinary teams but also that a common language (ICF-CY), comparable quality and the usage of ICT are missing – due to a lack of accessible skill-training material and practicable tools (directly linked to practice). (Krauss 2007)

Aims/objectives

• ICF-Train closes the gap between political will and practical implementation of ICF-CY by online assessment and training tools for the work with children.
• ICF-Train thereby increases the quality and use of ICT-assessment in transdisciplinary teams by Web2.0 joint learning.

Envisaged Impact

The resulting Web.2.0 tools of our project shall:

• increase the availability of ICF-CY training tools for mainstream training / "on the job" skill training,
• increase the quality of service delivery and in-service training for hundreds of ECI centres in Europe,
• support accessible training tools within new legal requirements in Portugal.
• implement national (BAR) recommendations related to ECI services in Germany, and
• support the implementation of EU policy in SK, BE, TR by an ICT-based practical (skill-oriented) community of practice.