Nelas Municipality invests in equipment for Multisensory Rooms in the Municipality’s School Groups

Aiming to increasingly improve the quality of teaching for our students and increase the social inclusion of students with special educational needs

Installed around 6 months ago, the Snoezelen Room at Centro Escolar de Nelas has permanently provided a unique, complete and meaningful multisensory intervention for children with Special Educational Needs [NEE], while in Canas de Senhorim, the existing Structured Teaching Support Room has now been reinforced with the acquisition of new equipment. These two aspects aim to facilitate the learning and autonomy processes of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders. [PEA]. Two important measures taking place within the scope of the Promotion of Educational Success in Viseu Dão Lafões project, resulting from the Application approved by the Centro Operacional Program 2020/Priority 10.1.

The Snoezelen Room at the Nelas School Center reflects an investment on the part of the Nelas Municipality to respond to students with SEN, equipment that currently welcomes around a dozen users in sessions led by teachers and specialized technicians. With the aim of promoting sensory stimulation and reducing anxiety and tension levels, this multi-sensory room is equipped with various equipment, from a water mattress, a water column with balls, an “Oceanary” water column, a projector “Starry Sky” effect, a ball pool, physiotherapy and relaxation equipment, sensory balls and rhythm bags, in order to stimulate the senses, such as touch, vision and hearing, as well as promoting autonomy, reducing inhibition and improve self-esteem. Since the beginning of its operation, this Room has presented itself as an asset in the therapeutic and psycho-pedagogical support of the Municipality’s children with special needs, contributing positively to their well-being and increasing the quality of education.

The Municipality also improved the educational response of the Canas de Senhorim School Group, more specifically at EB 2,3/S Eng. Dionísio Cunha, with the reinforcement of equipment for the Structured Education Support Room [SAEE], for a total value of around €5,000.00. This inclusive teaching space, which welcomes around ten students with ASD, brings together a set of important human and material resources to provide these children with a safe, well-structured and organized environment, essential characteristics to instill autonomy in them and develop their learning.

Still within the scope of the Educational Success Promotion project, the Municipality set up a Multidisciplinary Team with specialized technicians who are working in different areas in the Nelas and Canas de Senhorim School Groups, and who are responsible for developing psycho-pedagogical support actions that allow the early detection of educational risk factors, as well as the creation of appropriate and differentiated preventive responses. Composed of Social Mediators, Sociologists, Clinical Psychologists and Speech Therapists, this team has worked very successfully with students from the two Groups of the Municipality, having acted promptly in situations of risk of abandonment and school failure, and implemented combat strategies emotional and cognitive weaknesses, as well as promoting family mediation and social integration. Another set of inclusive measures recommended by the Municipality of Nelas, a commitment by the Municipal Executive to the constant improvement of educational services and quality of teaching in the Municipality and which meets the needs of students, parents and guardians.