A psychiatrist from the University Hospital of Fuenlabrada, Ruth Candela, awarded by a solidarity initiative, will allocate the award to the creation of a training website so that families and professionals of children with disabilities learn to communicate and can teach them to read and write.
Her project, presented under the name of ‘Not being able to talk to you does not mean having nothing to say’ has been the winner of the solidarity initiative ‘As big as you want to be’, promoted by Hyunday Motor Spain to “give visibility to anonymous projects that they improve people’s lives. ”
“It is this type of initiatives that support and promote projects with a vocation for social change that can improve the day-to-day lives of vulnerable groups,” said Candela, who will invest the 5,000 euros of the award in the creation of a training website for professionals and families of children with disabilities.
In her project, this psychiatrist explains that, of a group in Spain of more than 4 million people with disabilities, around a third have communication difficulties, paying special attention to children, according to a note from the Hospital.
“Children with cerebral palsy, Rett syndrome, autism or Angelman syndrome, among others, are condemned to live every day without speech and without the opportunity to learn to read and write, which prevents them from being autonomous or independent,” insists Candela. .
To alleviate this need, the doctor plans to create an online training website from which “all the services that are considered to be priorities on the difficult path of giving voice to children without oral language” can be provided.
“The acquisition of language is closely related to the learning of reading and writing. Most of the children with multiple disabilities have much fewer opportunities to achieve literacy, because they have not been provided with the foundations on which literacy is built,” she highlights.
Candela is convinced that with the help of assistive technology, through this new online platform, specific training can be provided for both families and professionals to implement teaching strategies.
