COM-IN- Promoting communicative development in children and adolescents with intellectual developmental disabilities to support their inclusion

COM-In supported young people with moderate to mild Intellectual Developmental Difficulties to develop relationships and engage in social contexts.

The COM-IN project supported the youth with moderate to mild Intellectual Developmental Difficulties (IDD) to acquire communication skills that can help them to develop relationships and engage in different social contexts.

To do this, the project developed and implemented the following activities:

An awareness survey on the training needs of professionals working with youth with intellectual developmental disabilities.
Two guides on the development of socio-communicative skills for youth with IDD for professionals.
A training module for professionals on the development of social-communication skills in youth with IDD.
A MOOC (massive open online course) developed from the guide and the training module.

Target Groups:

Professionals working with Youth in IDD who will be able to use the COM-IN Materials to support youth with IDD with the acquisition pf communication skills.
Youth and adolescents with IDD who will benefit from the training and be able to acquire additional communication skills, which will in turn help them to be more included in society.

Activities:

Conducted a survey among European disability service professionals, to assess the training needs of those working with youth with IDD as well as the communication needs of youth with IDD.
Conducted focus groups with youth with IDD to understand their communication needs.
Developed two guides for professionals to support the development of Social Communicative Abilities. One guide will be targeted at professionals working mainly with younger people (from 10 to 18 years), the second guide will be for professionals working mainly with older people (from 18 to 25 years).
Delivered a training module dedicated to professionals in IDD to support the development of Social Communicative Abilities
Raised awareness amongst professionals of the communication needs of youth with IDD.
Launched one MOOC dedicated to professionals to support the development of social communicative abilities in youth with IDD.
Hosted 5 events, to share the project results with wider audiences.

Results