Helping HyperActivity Nurture Development

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most commonly diagnosed neurodevelopmental disorders in children and young people. Children who struggle to manage their behaviour, pay attention, regulate their emotions, make friends, develop positive relationships with adults, and cope with the demands of traditional educational structures and practices are challenging to deal with for parents and teachers. However, these children do not present with these challenging behaviours intentionally. If these children do not learn skills to deal with their difficulties, then they are at risk for a range of negative outcomes. With the right kind of support, both at home and in school, children with ADHD can reach their potential and become contributing members of their communities. ADHD is a problem both for the children, their families and schools, but also the wider community and society. ADHD is very treatable; it is not associated with an inability to learn or with low intelligence.With our HELPING HAND project, we would like to empower teachers, equip them with the knowledge and tools, to be effective in supporting the needs of children with social, emotional, and/or behavioural developmental needs. Similarly, we would also like to support parents in understanding their child’s behaviour, and having the knowledge and skills to support their child developing skills to be successful in school and in life. Our guide for parents and teachers is providing them with the knowledge and skills needed to cope with a range of needs and difficulties.Our partnership united the efforts of 7 organisations of four European countries: Raabe Klett Educational Publishing House (HU), an education publishing company, Coventry University (UK), ELTE Bárczi, Faculty of Special Needs Education (HU), DE Hajdúböszörményi Gyakorló Óvodája, a tTraining Nnursery Sschool, Spojana Skola Komenskeho (SK) a kindergarten, Csipkerózsika Association (RO), an NGO for uniting kindergarten teachers and ADHD Foundation (HU), in a 26 months project dedicated to creating innovative tools for addressing effectively behavioural disorders and attention deficit at Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) level.In our project, we -developed a multilingual digital manual for teachers (Hungarian, English, Romanian, Slovak);-developed a multilingual digital guide for parents (HU, ENG, RO, SLO);-developed a multilingual collection of practical ideas mainly for kindergarten teachers (HU, ENG, RO, SLO); -conducted a research process that can serve for further reference and resource;-conducted 1 thematic international training (Joint Staff Training) for 12 participants, including teachers and education experts in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC);-conducted 3 local training for teachers, 3 open days for parents and 6 Focus Groups (reaching more than 200 stakeholders) and piloting, reaching possible more than 700 children;-we promoted the project’s outcomes through an ongoing and extensive dissemination campaign;-we collected evidence-base for future national educational reforms. The main target groups and the impact the project had:Kindergarten Teachers-Improved knowledge and competence base on how to recognise, address and support children with ADHD and their parents in mainstream ECEC;-Enhanced skill base to apply innovative methods to support the teaching process in kindergartens to ensure inclusive education and care; -Expanded professional development opportunities to match current needs of the society.Parents-Increased awareness of what behavioural disorders and attention deficit (ADHD) are and how to cope with these through active collaboration with kindergarten teachers and applying appropriate strategies to foster children’s personal development;-Improved capacities to recognize behavioural disorders and organize daily activities appropriately to ensure supportive environment for children’s successful personal and educational development.We are also hoping that the HELPING HAND project will contribute to increasing the quality of ECEC services and to fostering inclusion through the invaluable alliances we made through the project.