--- title: ASR ENG (เช้า) การประชุมสัมมนาวิชาการระดับนานาชาติด้านการศึกษาพิเศษ ครั้งที่ 9 วันที่ 11 มิถุนายน 2568 subtitle: date: วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 12 มิถุนายน 2568 เวลา 08.30 น. --- (ข้อความสดจากระบบถอดความเสียงพูดทางไกล) is more than 19 years forlet me peopleI hope you had a lot of rest yesterday and ready for today it was a long day yesterdaytodayso to start our next session we often hear about the importance of inclusionwhat does it truly look like in practice. how can we move beyond words and create tangible opportunities for neuro Divergent individuals? as a parent I'm deeply grateful for organizations that truly understand and celebrate neurodiversity. Our next speaker has dedicated their work to answering those very questions putting those ideals into action each and every day. it was it is with great pleasure that I introduced Max simpson CEO and co-founder of steps an organization at the Forefront of empowering neuro Divergent people and realizing those opportunities. Max's presentation steps into neuro inclusion personal and professional purpose will offer insights and actionable strategies for creating a more inclusive world. welcome. good morning. everybody. so this is the moment where I hope everything works. And it doesn't! sas Indra kindly uh introduced I'm Max I'm the CEO and founder of an organization Steps where based here in Thailand in Bangkok uh but we work across the region uh I'm also hold a masters in special education and inclusion and perhaps my most important role is that I'm parent of an autistic son.20% of the world's population is assumed to be neurodivergent and when we think about your classrooms your workplace your colleagues your community your family, that's probably somebody that you know. when we think about other identities that intersect of neurodiversity such as gender sexuality race class this number becomes a lot bigger.we're not talking about a minority or underserved group anymore, but we start to see who the world has been designed for and by whom. Meet A a movement towards creating a more inclusive community any Monsters Inc fans remember Sully the monster this is the pose he does in the movie which he used to like doing a lot when he was younger. but A's voice is just one voice that represents the thousands of individuals and families that we've had the privilege of working with at Steps over the years. For a long time he didn't use words to articulate what he wanted his preference his opinions, but he always had a voice. He had personality he had interests and ideas. but how do you get to know your child when they don't speak verbally? how do you understand their voice? how did we navigate School Family Life planning for the future with him?I love the term special interests; it's replaced obsessions restricted interests. special interest. so for us It is like boucing balls hidden everywhere I don't even know how many we have coloring pencils and lifts asked me about any lift in Bangkok I can tell you which floor it goes to the brand of it um who it was made by how fast it goes. but the point is that these special interests bring joy in a way that I don't think you or I could imagine and they bring something to him that it's hard to really capture.so why am I talking about this kid that for me a little bit of bias is I think is very cute. Because he is now 17 and we've been through early intervention we've been through grief and acceptance and schooling and now we're approaching employment. but to get there the journey is not straightforward. as many curves and twists along the road as other parents will understand.so when your child is mostly non-verbal how do you know when they're sad or anxious so frustrated or happy? how do you make decisions with them instead of for them?we learned to be a master investigator and You observe and you watch and you learn, and this is how you build trust with your child. That's how they know the home is safe and they can be who they are.these comments all came from a Tracker that he had when he was younger that was tracking his anxiety. so these are Specialists and parents and his family tracking things that we didn't know why they were happening, but we saw the emotions behind them.okay the quick stuff. early diagnosis 2 and a half little eye contact lined up his toys ticked all the boxes for a very stereotypical young man with autism. 1 of the first things that we're told after diagnosis is he needs to be medicated. common story here for lots of families common story in this region. why would you medicate a 2 and a half year old? he's active because he's small; he's active because his body needs to move. and then comes therapy. therapy and therapy and therapy which therapy is the right therapy? how long should you be in therapy for? where's the line between supporting and fixing?social skills training was my biggest bug bear through his journey because it's so often used incorrectly to help somebody neuro Divergent fit in to neurotypical society. after years of watching that video approach mom and I decided to take him out of all the therapy, and just let him be who he is. also this stuff cost a lot of money as I'm sure many of you know. Over barriers we experienced, resources available. minimum resources if you're not an English speaker even less resources. A's mum translated books Journal articles everything in between enter type because she wanted to access the information in her first language. limited number of Specialists. there's a hierarchy through the medical system. at some point we felt who was educating who? are we educating the Specialists or the specialist educating us? we become a caseworker for your child and have to navigate between the medical system in the therapy system the education system family but we were never trained to do that. learn. we had to learn as we I am a specialist so I get to where these 2 Hats but I can't be my son specialist because he needs a parent he's got all the other Specialists waiting for him. so we've done diagnosis, we've got all the pieces of the puzzle, and then we try and find a school.we hear this story all the time. not just here but globally. rejection , waiting list when did education become so exclusive? why is it only reserved for a child who looks or acts like a? when did we decide to stop following legislation that requires education for?and why do we do it when all research shows that it benefits all children when your divergent kids are in your class. by not having our kids in your classrooms, you're failing your kids because they learn from the experience of being with others; they grow up to be diverse and inclusive leaders members of the community, colleagues, friends. we found schools and there was the same pattern over and over again. he has to have a 1-to-1 he needs somebody glued to him at all times to be able to access education. you're taught to feel lucky to be offered a space and to feel guilty if you ask for anything additional.you have to feel grateful for the chance to be there and you can't always voice the concerns you have is you know that they might be met with a school rejection. he didn't like school; and neither did we, and your child sharing that with you is probably 1 of the most heartbreaking moments right?School Community, this is the place where lots of parents make other friends your connect you get to be part of something. for parents like us that often looks different, you get a lot of looks; you're not part of the parent Club always. there's a fear that your child might impact their child's education or social skills. school events and anyone who works in the school probably agree there's so many of them, distracting you come off the timetable. it's overwhelming shouldn't these things be optional?his voice was silenced through exclusion over and over again. so if school is not listening to his voice and the medical system is not listening to his voice, who is listening to his voice? I think a lot of the timethey think they're teaching your child something or they're teaching you something. but that's because they look at him as somebody that needs to change. lots of our kids end up being friends with younger kids because it's easier for them because there's less judgment.how will neurotypical kids or neurodivergent kids learn the social rules if they don't get to spend time together?religion is another identity that could intersect with neurodiversity, make an influencer beliefs and approaches. we had family members giving up beef because they thought it would be good karma. he was taken to famous temples that could heal him.I'm not sure who the healing was for, whether it was for him or for his family members, but it was important. and these things aren't bad or good, part of experience.we use this analogy all the time, in our world it makes everything seem so overwhelming that we build a thought around our family to protect ourselves protect our childand then when I wear my specialist hat and we're working with families who've built these thoughts that they don't feel safe to come out of the fort. but we have to take it down to get ready for work without taking it down doesn't happen.we all need allies and amplifiers. lots of these experiences they sound negative but they're just part of the experience, and you also find really good people along the way. it was hard to create Community for him especially when he was young, but a mix of own anxiety probably around imposing on other people another is not knowing how to interact with him put up some of those barriers. the safest people we found were families from our own community who just understand how to naturally be inclusive.so as a parent and a specialist and a person what do we do with all of this? well I stay up late at night looking at statistics and research on autism and employment because that's what I do for fun. 80% of autistic people are estimated to be unemployedit's a huge number of people that includes college graduates that's includes people from vocational training, and this is from the UK. why have we not done better around this topic?so as the parent, Journey comes to an end and I switch into being a specialist. we still search for safe people and safe spaces.we still grieve and I think the grieving process is something that every family goes through with a neuro urgent child, and it's something every specialist should be aware of. we are inundated with information all the time from different people,but we are also battling with different developmental Milestones. what does independent living look like? the friendships and family look like relationships? what this work look like?we always knew that his voice mattered. and we wanted to build something where we could at least be part of the change. this is where Steps began. 9 years ago, specialist and a group of people who wanted to change. lived experience, informs everything that we do and when I asked a a couple of nights ago what does he want this is what he shared with me. so he's been in a inclusive program for the past 3 years inside a mainstream school. and we've seen him Blossom there because he's accepted for who he is.I'm really glad that he wants to earn money because he can start paying back everything that he owes us. so I take off the parent hat and I step into specialist. Steps founded 9 years ago based here in Thailand working across the region we work to empower employers and Educators to realize and embrace the potential of neuro Divergent people so whether they're students employees customers members of the community, we work together to create a more inclusive world. big mission.and this is part of the why remember the earliest statistic, 20% of any classroom workplace likely to be a neurodivergent. 70 to 80% of all disabilities are invisible and yet it's rarely the focus. it's not that we disagreed that the other areas need Focus. accessibility accommodations these things I needed for other types too. that this population is hugely underlooked in funding in research in safe spaces.when we talk about inclusion what do we really mean? I think everybody has a different interpretation a different understanding, and I think that's okay. for us when we talk about inclusion and Steps, we're essentially talking about an ecosystem inclusion is everyone's responsibility all the time not just learning support not just HR not just the family is everyone we all need to be doing it. so we work with the private sector or government, we always show them this image to show who should be doing inclusion. it comes from your strategy, it's reflected in your policies. Human Resources play a role of course but so the leadership, so does your Communications, is your website accessible are you thinking forward to the future? are you seeing this as a value add for your business? is it in your supply chain too?this is the beautiful and complex nature of Steps . so we do many things to try and Achieve our mission; one of which is having social Enterprise businesses where we have coffee shops and bakeries that allow our trainees the opportunity to practice work have internships be an employment. we have vocational training centers where our trainees get to learn work Readiness skills, life skills self- advocacy. we do consultancy for workplaces and government so they learn how to be inclusive employers. we founded the first Research Center in this region that's dedicated to neurodiversity at work because there's such a lack of research here. and we want there to be a localized business case for why newer Divergent people should be included in employment. we need local Solutions so we need local data.and finally we have a business service center. this is where companies Outsource back office and digitization work, and it's completed by trainees and graduates.the training centers focus on 3 key skills: life skills preparation for the future transition to work. these are the 3 core areas that we see over and over again are missing from education. and they need to focusing on because as families like us know when your child hits 18 usually, all the support and services stop and you become responsible for your child's transition.when we talk about transition to work, we're thinking about work experience internships paid work. we're not talking about volunteering and giving your time for free this is real work and real companies. our social Enterprises follow a research-based approachwe place people into employment within 6 weeks of being with us so they're working on the job acquiring the skills as they work, conceptualizing it. we train as they work, and then we start to fade out the support. so it's a very structured system that's proven to get people ready and confident in their employment. and it's not only for the neuro Divergent individual; it's for the employer too. they need support throughout this process but we have to fade ourselves out always they become dependent on us too.I work with companies look similar they want to know what are the current attitudes knowledge perceptions values of in their company around disability.we almost always find that HR are the most negative about hiring inclusively because they've had negative experiences, they haven't had the support they needed to be successful, so then they become a block for change. so we do a lot of work with HR. companies need a strategy; they all like a blueprint or a road map or something fancy to look at to Showcase how they're going to get through the process. and they need a lot of training.most adults that we work with in private sector and government have never met somebody of a disability before, let alone somebody who's newer Divergent. there's a fear around what to do what to say how to act. 1 training we find shifts confidence by 75%. so just 1 30 minute training can help somebody feel more confident. about working alongside, supporting somebody, managing somebody is neurodivergent. so every company has 30 minutes to give.when only half of your employees who you're a Divergent disclose, we know that there's not psychological safety. this is the same in the classroom this is the same at admission system where a family doesn't tell you what you want them to to share. they don't feel safe to do it.psychological safety is at the heart of creating inclusive workplaces. so when we're designing our programs, we make sure they're centered on lift experiences so our trainees our graduates our community are informing how we train how we teach. We harness diversity to help improve outcomes and processes; everything is connected back to Universal Design, and Universal Design principles and we work with parents and caregivers to connect education employment and advocacy together.this is our approach; it's not the only 1 but it's the 1 that we see that's working.I will go through 3 or 4 examples of our work over the past few years. last year we ran a program around empowering caregivers. why? because as I mentioned parents end up taking on transition to employment and working with employers themselves, and often have no idea how to do it. we went up having to be part of a recruitment process, select employees that look safe, support your child through that process. and the research we've done to date showed that parents are at high risk for mental health, conditions because of this thought that we've built through Society.this was a 3-day training and a toolkit that was given to families and we saw really really great results. and their confidence and their knowledge and their ability to navigate the next stages. so just like the private sector, families also need training too and the training that's often provided by schools is from the school side not looking at what the families really need. our Research Center developed an assessment toolit's the first tool that's fully accessible self-assessment for people who are neurodivergent to self assess their work readiness. we've had around 700 people go through the assessment so far. and it helps to pinpoint where somebody can be successful at work. such as work preference do you like working with people objects computers animals indoors Outdoors do you need to be socially motivated to work? do you like people? do you have sensory needs that mean you may need to have certain accommodations made for you? and its strengths Focus what are you good at so an employer can receive a 1-page profile that clearly indicates where this person can work. what support they might need how they can be successful.flipping to our work with corporate, we have an ongoing partnership with IHG, the hotel group. they are trying to go beyond the quota system. so in Thailand in many countries, there's a quota system for hiring people with disabilities. here it's 1% so 1 in 100. they want to go beyond that because they feel that hiring inclusively is key to their mission. this was a 6-month change management program across 10 properties so far. with no previous experience of working with neuro Divergent people, and we saw the change happen really fast.I kind of love hotels for the reason that they're naturally inclusive by Nature. they work with such a diverse range of customers already that they're very open. but what we saw was the transformation of HR, going from the blockers to the champions of inclusive practice. they now teach anybody joining the company how to be inclusive why it's part of their values, why we need to do it. accommodations on our available across all the properties, there's an alternative recruitment process for people who need an alternative support, and it's just a really great example of what can be achieved when a company really wants to, and it doesn't cost that much. they see the return on investment in that they will be chosen by our community for places to stay. did they get the return from the daily lived and interactions that they have with their employees. we know things like the business case for doing this reduces attrition rates, boost morale increases innovation.but that data is not from this region is from the West, which is why our Research Center is so passionate about trying to create this in a localized way. this was 1 of my favorite ones to do just because I love Ikea. is 1 of those companies where you see they can cut and paste it anywhere in the world and it looks exactly the same. which for us screams good systems and processes, which means very neurodivergent friendly. also their stuff is nice alright Everyone likes shopping at Ikea. so we used a partnership with them to create an inclusive office model. it takes you through 5 steps to create an inclusive office. from zoning to Furniture, to lighting to labeling and sorting this can be applied in a classroom in an office even at home.and just helps anybody do this in a low-cost, but still aesthetically pleasing way. there's a fear that we hear from lots of our partners that accommodations in the workplace cost a lot the reality is the majority cost less than $50. the other thing they share is that it doesn't look nice it doesn't look pretty; well Ikea can make it look pretty for you as well.we aren't true to ourselves if we don't reflect on our own learnings and process as we work with our clients. we see so many companies fearful to start inclusive hiring because they don't know where to start. what we've learned is just start somewhere. if it's a policy start of a policy; if it's hiring start of hiring you won't always get it right but you will learn. but don't keep the fear prevent you from starting. they tell us it's less complex than they think. but you do need to allocate time and resources, just like any project that you bring in. have the right people in place. another common fear that we hear isbuildings aren't accessible or we can't hire somebody like that. you don't need to be accessible to all people with disabilities; you can pick which group you think you are best case to serve and focused on that. once we remove that barrier for the companies they totally rethink okay well maybe we are the best employers for people who are deaf people who are blind maybe we can't do our space for wheelchair users because our building doesn't allow that but we can work with these other demographics instead.they learned to think about abilities in a different way. we all have strengths we all have weakness. and so often with people with disabilities we only focus on the weakness. and we don't talk about the strengths. when we teach companies to think through a strength-based model,it flips the switch and they start to see how somebody can contribute rather than all the things that they can't do.a big part of the work is around redesigning recruitment processes and evaluating what successful looks like. any job description that you find out there is likely at least 50% of nice to have schools the job descriptions are just designed this way, and it doesn't make sense because you don't apply because you think you can't do everything but actually they don't need you to do it all. so we often talk about what they wanted skills versus needed.I'm going to try and play a video so this was created by our trainees and graduates talking about their experience of work.just a second I don't know how to get the sound maybe someone knows hi my name is Miss I've been working part time at steps kitchen hello my name is Nikki my current experience do a full-time Business Service Center. [Thai Spoken]I am office I do baking helping the chef with touching and and dry equipments I accept the way I am and I love being autistic. I learned to reespect everyone's strengths and challenges.I learn not to judge other people I compare everyone; either that people have different characteristics. diverse workplace can be very good for people who are different remember calendar 8 year and people's birthday and I like to take care of my friend who has difficulties. [Thai Spoken]I have students in computer skills and using office equipmentI don't like talking to all the I am not doing eye contact I have a speaking challenge I have to use government kitchen app line WhatsApp and email to communicate with my coworker supervisor. [Thai Spoken] I look to my jobs and I don't want the noise really loud I use noise cancelling so I can have more Focus. the temperature of the room that I prefer got to be too hot or cold. they respect my needs and use email to talk and communicate with me. is it allowed me 10 to 15 minutes to spend my time on writing my diary it helps me to feel better like doing exercise doing meditation praying [Thai Spoken] seeing and talking to colleague make me feel happy when I come to workI feel not good when other people insult me and treat me not like a grown up and this doesn't happen we are the people who have autism only it happens to everyone also the people who doesn't have autism. I don't want people to bully cyber bully about autism or other diagnosis. I wish you may work who have diversity should be hired by big or small companies. I want them to treat everyone equal understand about people who have autism and different more, showing respect to each other and be nice to each other. even though we're all different we should be treated equally. I think that's the most powerful message for me in that and that's not just for the neuro Divergent Community, that's for all of us. when we think about the concept of belonging at work or in the community or at school, I think all of us just really want to be accepted for Who We Are. and I think our community is a good representation of that but if we just take it on a personal level, that's what we're all seeking.I like the young man who talks about he doesn't want to say good morning and make eye contact; I feel that way my too sometimes. you know as you walk through the office and it's like 20 people that you have to say hi too but you're stressed about your day just want to get to your desk and get on with it. there's so much we can learn from this about the Norms in society and how we're pushed to do but if we strip it back and think about what we really need each day at work or school. we're going to make the environment a lot nicer. final message:please help to set our kids up for success and move away from 1-to-1 models. we know why I want to 1 is often the preferred approach. but look at the research, it disables our kids. when an adult is glued to a child all day other kids that want to interact with them. the teachers not doing their job because they're deferring to somebody more Junior to do the work of differentiation,. as parents we often get segregated from other parents please try and help create spaces for us. talk to us like we're still people; we're not scary we have ideas. come ask us. if you're working in primary or middle school, please start thinking about life skills advocacy, employment skills from that age because it's so often doesn't get focused on until they're 15 plus and we need to be doing it sooner. create engagement be present communicate regularly with our families. sometimes we really have to form these very special relationships in schools to find out what's going on against the communication piece is missing. all of us here can be the difference. We can be allies and champions. I'm going to stop talking and see if there's any questions and then we will end for this morning. Will anybody like to ask anything anybody have any questions for Max?good morning good morning everyone then a school I am a teacher from the border it autistic students the most important thing is the teacher I teach hardof hearing I go with them I escort them so I take care of them. so there is 1 of them he is included with all all types of disabilities. He's a teacher and he's with autistic kid okay try to give you a translation as it goes along.and then I am responsible for the the autistic kid and deployment is quite difficult because autistic students have severe Behavior as we we can see this morning but suppose that the the autistic students have severe uh Behavior different students pin punches uh aggressive they have a lot of power so I cannot stop him, so a lot of teachers have to help me.parents know they've the the the behavior and they cannot help themselves but anyway he can help himself like taking a shower so or life skills daily skill but he's not interested .for example he know that he should mop the but he he doesn't want to it doesn't follow our instruction but he can help himself on a daily activity,washing his hand he doesn't I contact but trying to take care of him. but now he has improved and I try to train him so I want him to have more abilities. this is autistic in in in inclusive School a special uh so I like to support him on his career or employment because I want him to have uh a career to take care of himself and his family.what could you recommend here Max? for specific case so it's very hard because I don't know the student but sound like maybe the work is not connected with the students interests. and this is something we see in school and we see it employment if we don't really understand what's motivating for somebody then there are likely to want to do it and when it comes to employment we all need to be motivated in our work otherwise we procrastinate the whole day. which I'm guilty of doing quite a lot um so maybe it's linked back to his interests or motivations to do it or maybe the environment is not as inclusive As It Seems um and they may need to be more accommodations in place but yeah it's difficult ...okay he understands what you're saying thank you very much. anybody else has questions for Max? The principal from Bhutan good morning everyone good morning everyone here uh your presentation has moved us a lot as a parent and as n the school and educator in the school as well uh you you have a very great story to tell about a child with autism that actually and move all of us in this Hall how to actually how do you feel as a parent and how do you go about with a child autism. and that's something so great story thank you for sharing this story.with that story you also created a good initiative become a specialist. That's something so great. I think it is you are 1 of the motivators for all of us from a parent to a specialist and something uh the 1 message that I would we would take from here is sometimes a parent can be a specialist because Baron also need to take care of the family Rules that's something a strong message uh my question I have 3 questions my my question is writing from the step from the company or the initiative program that you have taken up, how do you align training for families and teachers to support children autism? because the environment the home and the school is so important for everyone of us specially for the children with autism. and these trainings have to be aligned so that they would always talk on the same page, support what is actually required and needed for the child. how do we actually align these trainings both for the teacher and the parent? I think as an educator we make a lot of assumptions sometimes about what is happen spending at home what should be happening at home what's needed. so from Steps side we don't try to design anything without talking to all the states called us first because everybody's home or needs looks different so we will run focus groups or Round Table discussions and listen to the different needs, both sides. and align the training based on that because there's no point us coming with some evidence based approach that doesn't fit into the local context or the context of somebody's life. we want to hear where are the barriers for them what are they worried about what are their fears and then we use that feedback loop to change our training approachwhy is the system that Educators have decided we need to learn ABC? without actually talking to the students or the families about what that looks like for them outside of the school setting, which is where you're going to spend most of your life. it's an interesting system we've created. is that how to to answer your question? thank you uh the second question is uh now when you talk about the personal disabilities that is the biggest concern globallynot only in 1 country or in 2 countries;it is globally it's a big concern. unless the state government gets into it and support those people with disabilities. and what your experiences, how is the state government in Thailand supporting children with disabilities specially the autism?I think that the education system in Thailand not even talking about special education is having a hard time, and because of that it takes time for it to trickle balance to special education because there's an issue with Maine education already, so it's sort of forgotten field in some ways um we see pockets of really great practice some of the universities are running demonstration schools um working with families and students in different ways but it's not replicable it's happening here and here and here and not much communication around the good things that are coming out of it. um so I think it's a really good opportunity for Thailand to change, and maybe stop being informed so much from other countries and focus on what we are good at here. there's an innate kindness I think in Thailand, Thai people are kind and want to be supportive and want to create inclusive communities, so we should foster that into what we're doing .thank you for a very loaded question .the the final question the final question I have is uh we see that across the globe across the world we see there are many children who who disabilities are invisible. and then there are many personal disabilities who disability are visible.but uh for this we also need to take care of the children or person who are invisible and how in how inclusive are the schools in Thailand we actually welcome those students in their schools? do you have any some experiences to share on this?sure thank you another loaded question for me um I can see Indra nodding as well she has her own experience um okay from my own experience of my own son, lots of rejection from schools even the inclusive schools, there's maybe 10 or so in Bangkok on the list. every 1 of those who was rejected from so I think that tells 1 part of the story. for a lot of the families we work with that's been their experience too, where you're not able to access education and that's reflected in 90% of children with disabilities in Thailand exit education at the end of primary, don't go on the secondary education because the schools aren't accepting them. so when we get to employment age there's this huge skills Gap because these kids have been home for years and haven't been in the community and they haven't been learning. so to fix the system we have to go back and for us we think we have to go back to the diagnosis. process because it begins from there, where the shame and all of these things start from that point where families are sort of taught to keep their child away. so lots of work to do would you like to add to that. [Thai Spoken] I'm just trying to say that my my son, was born deaf and he got a cochlear implant and he was rejected from 5 schools kindergarten not even Norm like high school kindergarten rejected. and finally when I got through and got him up to Grade 9 I had to cut out the come out of the Main stream in school because he couldn't handle it and God sent me a miracle in the form of steps my son now goes to Steps if it wasn't for Max. Thailand doesn't have what Max has done here this is something that I government should actually see and do very good example My son goes to Steps and he has uh he's ready for employment he's now learning photography he can actually go to work he can communicate with people, he's got self-confidence, so thank you Max .there's 1 more question for you Max the last question please and the last question yeah last question yes so our last question pleaseDirect of autistic autistic, I'd like to share my experience the school autistics school was established in Thailand now we have two places in San and in Chiang Mai and now we have from grade 1 to grade 2 so and and 9 around 49 students and we are creating this specific curriculum for autistic students so I bring the knowledge today to apply in our curriculum that we can utilize it in Supan and Chiangmai. thank you thank you for sharing okay if you'd like to stay in touch or ask more questions or follow what we're doing, please connect with us uh this is my LinkedIn and this is for Steps newsletter which goes out every month if you can't catch it now catch me afterwards and happy to chat to anybody. thank you very very much for having me here today it's been a pleasure to talk to you.there a couple of questions that maybe you have to answer at the back side Dr money 1 may I invite you in front and Max may I invite you to the front Dr maliwan want to give you a gift.A round of applause Max. Thank you. Just before we go to our next session. there is a gift from Bhutan uh so this is traditional from Bhutan.... deep significant in civilizace respect.and also given to Dr. Maliwan. Actually this tradition of of keeping scarf is diverse depends on occasions and situations and special occasion so it's to respect so let's have a photo session. After this additionally this is also special occasion I like open congratulate 1 more person from someone to us we would like to invite everyone in the room to join us in celebrating birthday of Dr. Anucha [Happy Birthday Song] Next speaker. that'll be presenting with us today is Mr. Tanatchat um are you have you reached yet I'm not sure ah there you arT Mr Tara chat is from sorry sorry is from the concordian International School . when I read the program that yeah you're a student am I correct? Your student I was surprised that a student wanted to come and present here I think that's amazing we're usually seeing Educators and other people have been having a student seeing the importance of presenting here is fantastic welcome, go ahead, thank you. (Mr. Tanatchat) Hi thank you so much for the warm welcome. It's a pleasure and great honor to be here. Okay so my story does not begin with a nap. it begins with my grandmother in retirement she chose to spend her mornings at Tung Hoang daycare a modest center near Don Wing Airport. run by the foundation of the welfare of the mentally special of Thailand. I followed her one day, and then another until the children themselves ordinary in their mischief... feel like a second home I watched them wrestle with a world that often misunderstood their silence. Autism spectrum disorder had not stolen their thoughts it is merely jammed their microphone. Many can process language but cannot reliably produce it they rely on gestures laminated flashcards or the intuitive guesses of devoted caregivers. The Picture Exchange communication system works wonders but physical cards get torn, loss and seldom leave the barriers of the classroom. For families in rural Thailand importing PCS can set them back an entire month's worth of salary the result a formidable barrier to education social integration and self-advocacy. When the IB personal project rolled around in my sophomore year. I saw more than a school requirement. I saw leverage. I framed a learning goal that was both scientific and human. To understand language production barriers in children with autism and build an intervention, that families could practically and excessively use. I split my research into 6 research questions ranging from what is language to what extent can we adapt existing tools rather than just admire them. I looked at journals on neural Linguistics interviewed Professor Stephanie Nelly about the Brokers area, and listen to Thai parents who will confess that sometimes they still do not know what to make their child for dinner. Research without Community Insight is sterile and Community Insight with our research is a sure misfire. I treated every interview, every literature review and every classroom observation as pieces of the same jigsaw. Isaac Newton once said : if I have seen further It Is by standing on the shoulder of giants. In my case, I would like to add I have stood on the shoulders of 2 Giants Academia and human connection. From this Fusion emerge speech Park. A mobile application. Primary operating system most app targets children aged 7 above with moderate to mild ASD who can tap into screens but struggle to tap into conversation. The app primary consists of ... so the app's primary function is the communication kit essentially PEX it is a library of picture cards grouped into daily contacts such as food emotion or classroom items and each table speaks a higher English word flashing a large visual not only that it also allows parents and independent teachers to create their own personalized flashcards based on their own individual household contacts so for an instance a family with a certain set of dietary restrictions have their own set of flash cards and a different family has their own flashcards too and I hope that this personalized feature is much easier than laminating cards. And the interface itself I hope is not too unbatched, the royal blue backgrounds with orange accents I hope settles with maximal maximum contrast with minimum sensory overload . so throughout this process of reiteration and reprogramming um I judge speech bark on 4 primary target goals. The first 1 is user interface I really hope that this was intuitive legible and engaging and feedback does demonstrate it however 1 principal has stated that using the flash card so much more convenient than the app however I believe that through more optimization and reiteration we can definitely make the app a lot more optimized and user-friendly. in terms of the target audience um we've made some minor adjustments to our goals of age 7 and a plus to more IQ based index. In terms of function 62% of feedback demonstrates that there are clear positivity in terms of the functions that resemble packs. And believe and I believe that more longitudinal studies are still required to confirm that this is an effective method and that involves implementing a curriculum as well. That is why I believe that this success s not a Finish Line but rather a moving Target because these iterative Loops have taught me that user centered methods means listening even when it stings. And even it when the teachers completely bash your ideas and say they're horrible. And that's when it matters the most because these are the people that are going to be using the app not us. In terms of is always farther far greater than the cost of making any mistake in an age where indirect service can masquerade as help. research illuminates the path but is it is working with frustrated teachers debugging code at 2 AM and filling out Google Play 37 if you had submission form that turns you empathy into utility. I hope that through this process a mother and man can download speech bark for the first time for zero bot and your her daughter pressed 2 icon, country and eat, I know exactly what to make for dinner. And this moment would be worth all the work I've put in and all the work that everybody has put in. Speech Park is just a prototype not a Panacea just yet we still need a lot more rigorous trials conclusive research and controlled evidence and also content localization working with different dialects and more importantly different flashcards to demonstrate that this actually works using different open source modules working with different countries and experts and specialization means that we can continue to improve on end. I invite universities ngos and edtech firms to join this mission share your data sets lend your UI designers, and challenge our blind spots. Perhaps very name Speech Sparks implies ignition not Monopoly let me Circle back to Tung Song Hong, on my most recent visit as we dance to the enthusiastic baby shark. I realized something profound technology is a conduit but is it is the human connection that makes up the circuitry. I stand before you with a simple plea. When they clear issue arises do not merely admire the problem, design against it, tests against i,t, iterate against it the children we serve do not need another white paper any tools that fit inside their hands and unlock the voices inside their heads. I believe we are all striving for a common goal here everyone here today. And let us ignite more Sparks together. Thank you. (Miss Alice) Thank you very much it's actually very impressive. Very proud here to see your generation working to make the world better and please don't stop keep fighting I'm sure you'll find what you need. Thank you. (Miss Indra) Dr.Maliwan is the chair of the foundation for the Deaf. (Miss Alice) Thank you for that. Our next presenter. Dr Rada Dara from tFaculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital,Mahidol University. hospital mahito may I uh request Dr Rada data on stage please cove.r (Male Speaker) Good morning distinguished audience my name is chaitan upon and this is today so president of a project the prevalence of hearing loss among primary school children in Bangkok Metropolitan so out there contribution to make this project happen let begin with the uh the background behind it this project why we doing this project So hearing loss is 1 of the common permanent disability that can happen with our age range. Here in the figure you're seeing that uh the estimated number up hearing impaired person's globally, so at the current moment, the estimated number in uh 2025 would be about 466 million people globally and interestingly about the win percents of those people were children. Let's copy the number of hearing impaired people in specific region. The number of sharing loss people highest in Asian country. Specifically, the higher number were in the low and middle income country and so because of the impact of hearing on the children's ability and allow us and burden on economics uh the wsl1 to reduce those number by at least 20 sense by 2030. So let me review a little bit about our year as you can see that we have 3 parts of the year. The outer ear middle ear and the inner ear the impairment in their um outer and middle ear can be treated by medication surgery in contrast the impairment in the inner ear cannot be treated the people with hearing loss in this part need interventions such as uh hearing aid or cochlear implantation. Luckily about 60% of uh the cost of hearing loss of pure and treatable. Before we go further let me ask you if this uh a fake game for jumping competition because you're saying that right so it is not fair game when 1 children has to over a higher fence then the other children. So if you use the same metaphor for the children with hearing loss you seeing that when the Children hearing loss has to you know using a lot of effort to overcome the speech perceptions in noisy environment. Of course, hearing hearing is more difficult as for them, right? And of course it going to be unfair for learning care we are choosing and also socialization. So this figure shows the frequency range that is important for speech perceptions. So the normal hearing children who have the hearing sensitivity on the top that you can see above the green line. So they be able to hear every signal, every sound to develop uh normal speech and language. Right, here all the consonant in English okay the frequencies, and here our conversation level. So normal hearing children don't have any problems to hear your voice to learn language. But what happening with the hearing impaired children. As you see from below that even mild hearing loss interrupt normal development of speech and language and the impact of hearing loss will get worse when they get more hearing impairment so the common... abnormal speech and language development uh they have to put a lot more effort to develop the same intellectual competency. And they have uh limitations in socialization, career path and it's going to impact the economic When the Children cannot find a job that they serve their competencies fortunately at any project related to uh hearing loss in children in Thailand will support however we still need more research to make even better and better. So more research going to uh increase awareness of hearing impairment in children and going to support the detection and Intervention Program, but due to the shortage of audiologists in Thailand, accessibility to hearing Health Care might be really difficult. imagine what if we can do it detected, treated, and prevented of the hearing loss so of course the hearing hearing installation and enhance learning skill for the children and also improve social skill and reduce economic birth. So our project has to in first of all to estimate the prevalence of hearing loss in primary school children in Central Bankok and the second to develop the awareness of hearing impairment and its effect in the parents and the teachers. Here how we conduct our research. So the selections of the sample based on random method so where student were randomly recruited from different grade and different classroom. And we use 2 questionaire to collect the uh informations. First questionaire, to you why you at the risk of hearing loss where that will end just by the teacher. The example of the question from the questionaire. Do the turning around when they hear somebody calling them from behind and do they have uh you know reported of middle ear problem and do the using body language more than spoken language. And another question here, Answers by the parent related to uh demographic data for example marital status sharing the educations and family income. Here the uh the hearing screening that run by audiologists first screening would be um otoscopic examination that to inspect the outer ear such as uh impacts you remain foreign body and also look at the membrain status so we also did Tempo tree which is in the objective test to evaluate the middle ear functions so the result from the temporary would be identified into part type first uh type A which mean uh they have normal video a functions. type B they have abnormal which mostly related to middle ear afferction and also type c mostly related to uh usage to this functions that commonly happen in children who has a allergy and also coal. And also do even the hearing sensitivity through the air conductions signing hearing threshold. so at screening recommended by share organizations we ran their The Test at 20 DB in the frequency from 500 to 4,000 Hertz which most important for speech and language perceptions and uh if if they respond at the 20 DB so the student have normal hearing but if they respond to the uh the sound that higher than 20 DB we consider that abnormal and the AI will find through hearing threshold at each frequency is both here he had our result. So This data in Central Bangkok area children and they all age rain from 7 years old to 9 years old. The number of participant based on the size of the school and class, number of the class and number of the student in that school. So here a little bit of demographic data. So the person who answered these questions mostly mother, and around 60% of the family still in married. About the income, most of them uh came from the lower income family, so basically 70% of the family has a total income just under slightly over the minimum wage.The hearing are screening results performed by audiologists encoding otoscopic examination tympanometry and screening audio mean audiometer other fighting show that around to 22% of the students have abnormal orthoscopic so they might have foreign body in the yearimpact silent and 12% of the student had abnormal tympenometry and uh 6% of uh the student had abnormal audiometry so even using um the audio as a go standard like in sophisticated so we can infer the 6% of the student in this uh project has a hearing loss and need further investigation. So we refer all of them to the hospital and get further investigation.And due to the uh the shortage of audiologists the accessibility to hearing like I said would be really challenging. So some school may be using the screening questionnaire to... you know evaluate the risk of hearing loss. So our data showing that 18% of the student had uncorrelated we saw between screening questionnaire and the audiometric. So beware if you're using just only the questionaire right now that your student may having a hearing loss. You know we cannot detect just only by the questioning. And further, we uh see that the uncorrelated out between the tympenometry and the omitting uh uh 10% which mean that some student who has abnormal media functions but still have normal hearing. also we cannot use just only 1 1 uh 1 examination we got to do both first of all to evaluate your functions and second of all to evaluate hearing ratio. has come to the conclusion so about 6% of the student in this project had hearing loss.mostly the causes of hearing loss could be treatable and preventable. such as impact serum and usage until this functions when they get called and made the your fusions. And we cannot use the questionnaire alone to evaluate the hearing in the children and if you're using their uh uh you know if we we want to do the hearing screening project we suggest that uh you know to test both Tympanometry and Audiometry, so some student from this project went to hospital and get confirmed hearing loss. And some of them get hearing devices such as hearing aids. And also if any children that have a hearing loss we tell them to bring their sibling to come to the clinic in the same day to get the hearing evaluation because we concerned about family history of hearing loss or genetic hearing loss. Discussions the hearing screening project couldn't be done with our uh contribution from multidisciplinary team such as helping from teacher. audiologist and also most importantly from the parents so uh hearing screening should be done annually because hearing loss could happen at any age, any time. The screening uh should be covered like throughout the country not just only in few areas of Bangkok. So we suggest that the government should uh make the hearing screening, and hearing Healthcare as a public policy, and thank you for your attention. (Miss Alice) Thank you very much for the very impressive presentation. (Male Speaker) Thank you. (Miss Indra) I just wanted to check with the team did you want to put up the QR code or are we doing that later. Okay, yesterday we put this up but apparently not everybody has uh again and we do this again please give you about 10 minutes before we go to our next presenter please can you scan. Thank you.I hope everybody got their breaks also their coffee break the topic cake is actually quite tasty have you all tried it and position in the morning we will uh change our schedule a little bit. Because we have a coffee break served in the snack box. So we will have the presenter to present about 10.45. Start at 10:45 now is the time to do the evaluation form help us feel the evaluation form. If you cannot scan it, please let us know. And the students also can learn from the presentations today and also participate in the evaluation form. as well and during the break time and buy our toffee cake in our shop. Afternoon. In second floor and first floor a breakout session we're gonna have a workshop uh with the the uh DVT specialist you guys met her yesterday. Dr. Leah is going to be doing ABT uh workshop on the second floor and we also will have our proceedings as we've said here before so anybody interested to go to Workshop you can join us in the second floor as well or you can stay here with the presentation as well. That's up to you. Thank you.Hi. Are you ready so can I ask you to come to stage. Is that okay? Are you ready? okay uh may I present our next uh presenter Dr. Hiroko Furuta from the Shoka University Japan yep you can go right on stage. Thank you. and Professor Dr. Maliwam ladies and gentlemen it is my pleasure to um um present uh our presentation and the title is process of including special schools into inclusive education systems um there are 3 uh researchers myself Dr. Hiroko Furuta Shokei University, Japan Dr. Riho Sakurai Hiroshima University, Japan Dr. Prasad Sethunga, University of Peradeniya Sri Lanka inclusive education advocated by UNESCO in it's 1994 Salamanca nation is an international trend of course you know of all. And of earned UN CRPD 2006 and go for of the SD 2015 the process towards inclusive education differs Country to Country and Region to Region, so that means the transition process of how to special schools is also uh differs by country, by country the Region to region, so the process uh including special schools into system very important in Bhutan and in some cases very often a typical tasks so we would like to examine how to include special schools in the inclusive education system without leaving them behind what was also utilizing, utilizing their resources.the purpose of This research is to ident... um we focus on the process of inclusion of special schools into the inclusive education system in the case of low and middle income countries and it is not appropriate to apply inclusive education uniformly mmic so withdrawal of support for and closer special schools by some large International NGOs... children with disabilities so transition to inclusive education in many such countries requires careful consideration because of for example the delay in the formulation and develop mint inclusive education policies by government so that is why the purpose of This research is to clarify the process of version to an inclusive education system in relation to the inclusion of special schools by comparing 2 countries in South Asia, Sri Lanka and Bhutan um both countries Bhutan and Sri Lanka multi ethnic marut cultural countries and majority of Buddhists and per capita GDPs are similar and fully education providing free Education Health Care and Medical Services, so of course the country size similar and background is also similar so that is why we selected Sri Lanka and Bhutan, and both countries share the idea of Karma. Karma means of course you know um which Associates disability don't doing life is culturally ingrained but has been changing in recent years. And both countries ratify the UN CRPD in 2006, 2016 and 2023 so this method this study examine the process of inclusion of special schools into inclusive education by comparing 2 countries through a comparative analysis of the history of development of special education this is the first 1 and the second the current status of special schools and the third 1 final 1 formation and implementation of inclusive education um Sri Lanka history in 1912 the first special School both comments and 1960 special schools went out of Ministry of Education, and in 1960 special education units began in the regular schools, so there are 2 kinds of special schools, one is assisted by Ministry of Education, another one is known assisted special schools. So the number of assisted special schools increased like this figure. Under this inclusive education trends and anyway in Sri Lanka, there are multi layered system of special education one government School under the Ministry of Education, another 1 Special School under the Department of Social Services.the number of assisted special schools and and the number of students you can see from this table 1. and about 1 quarter of the children with disabilities run at special schools. And the remaining 3 quarters run at special education unit in the government school and the total number of students in special schools is comparable to the number of those in special education unit. and most of students running in the special schools or learning in the western province which include the metropolitan areas which City of Colombo and so and uh formulated in 2020 I will uh explain this later in later in uh how is the situation a dear situation of special schools so in order to grasp the actual conditions of education in special schools in Sri Lanka , 3 different types of special schools were selected can be City and its suburb of Kandy District in the these 3 types schools were chosen from the Viewpoint of disability categories to be told different blind School and intellectual disabilities. And the learning organization province or NGOs and The Residency status of students School is a residential school for children who are different blind, local welfare organization and is assisted Ministry of Education assisted School School B is a day school for children with intellectual disabilities buthostel facilities available school will be is run by Welfare Society and registered under the Department of Social Services it this is a Ministry of Education known assisted School and school C is a day school for children with internet sure disabilities. and school C was started in the late 1990s and is run by the provincial Department of Educationso government policy document so far do not mention any drastic measures there is a risk in Sri Lanka special schools will for the marginalized in the inclusive education system in the future. Okay Bhutan, actually neither there are 2 special schools uh Noah Ming Institute nor the 1 Institute a name such as uh score for the brand or score for the day but here we call these schools special schoolsHistory in 1973 the jungle m when setting school for the bride incurring established very sorry my pronunciation maybe it came under the Ministry of Education in 1981 and it became part of the Central School in 2016 this education unit of the don't give uh lower Secondary School in Paro commenced in in Ministry of Education converted the deaf unit in the drunk Secondary School into the 1 sell input for the deaf in 2014. Yeah, this table so the outline of 2 special schools in Bhutan and in the Muenselling Institute there were um there is a Buddhist Sign Language Institute also so anyway this special schools are both Public Schools so very different from Sri Lanka situation.so in 2012 the bhutanese government formulated personal policy on special education needs to ensure that children with disabilities are not segregated in their in educational environment.. So in Bhutan, special schools are integrated into inclusive education system number is a government and since special schools are not private organizations the schools do not have serious Financial concerns for school operations. Am I correct? So findings gluten is special schools have been functioning in the specialized centers for the education of children uh visual impairments and hearing impairmentsthat Bhutan transition to an inclusive education system can be seen as a smooth inclusion special Institute for special schools and specialized call centers. So process of including special schools into inclusive education systems Sri Lanka long history of special education and they have a variety of special schools. Multi-sector system containing both government schools and special schools so in Sri Lanka the Ministry of Education has not yet started including special schools into their inclusive education system as of the recently issued policy on inclusive education. On the other hand in Bhutan, 2 special schools were functioned as Public Schools from the onset or within several years after their establishment after the formulation of the inclusive education policy in 2012. these 2 schools are firmly sit to be part of goods inclusive education system through facilitating to play the role of specialized Resource Centers. Conclusions, as an island country Sri Lanka was exposed to foreign influence I believe which is historically remote with them around the humerus so This research highlighted the significant difference in 2 LMICs in South Asia in the process of inclusion of special schools into the inclusive education system. Part of this research was supported by the Haven consumer foundation in Japan. The presenter thank all 5 school principals who presented and shared standpoint as the online components. And special thanks also go to Mr. Karma Norbu (former Ministry of Education, Bhutan), Nyendo (Changangkha MSS), Prof. Paul Lynch (University of Glasgow). These are references and thank you so much. (Miss Alice) Yes, Thank you very much. Mr Hero fuuka next presenters um May I now invite our next speaker ss8 Professor Dr. Miwa Oseki from so University Japan to deliver her presentation on the topic there are many support to movement education and habitation a study based on called m e p a r assessment please give her a warm welcome. (Assoc. Prof. Miwa) Hello, thank you for this opportunity to speak today I'm me I'm from Japan I was a teacher at the school for the intellectual disability for 30 years. from last year I am working in University. I am not young but I am a new teacher of University. So today I presented... present about the developmental support through movement education and therapy research based on about assessment.in Japan the number of students incorporate education is increase in year by year. Why the number of student in specialist schools is in losing in the field of special needs education many individual has been implemented and have achieved a certain level of success. however with the includes in the number of children the needs for group instruction has increased therefore we wanted to clarify the effectiveness. of classroom practice using the movement education and therapy. series that can be applied to group activities why they have being disposed of students conductors in school sitting not how manyhave been conducted conducted in specialist such a special needs schools for the intellectually disability. In this study our goal, we are found practical systems for supporting children's development from practice and specialist schools was the Integrity disability particularly for groups activities in school sitting as well as verify the results of the map are assessment using implement development of laborers and activity programs. Movement dedication was systematized times in 1970, my American neuropsychologist Dr Marion Frosty of Switzerland give out of Germany and weakness of the US also found this method effective sad stateintroduced the movement education to Japan in 1977 and developed the MEPA-R mainly for intellectual disability to you on the MEPA-2 are severity in the handicapped children now movement education is used in school as with as well as will and Elderly Care facilities under teaching method. lost in views development in terms of 3 elements movement dedication respect so Independence and spontaneity of the child subject and enabled and children to learn to move to his or her and through movement assist harmonies development of the body mind heartthis this exam the characteristic of movement education teachers can adjust their teaching policy through movement of assessment this assessment consists of 180 items developed into 3 major area and 6 developmental domainsit is organized into 7 life stage from 0 to 72 months for us to age 6. characterizing the stage of development parents teachers of other caregivers who knows the children know the child can complete it. the assessment context is also easy for parents to understand calls for introduction and activity programs cancel the device the phone a very strong evaluation of this assessmentyou got the sample entry the 6 item in the receipt receptive language domain L6 is that the child responds to the this give me start dating is Plus. is the district to offer or refuse the plus minus If the child show including all the beginning of such a response and minus if there is no response the main feature of this evaluation system is the ability to know the reading response or early signs of respondingthis is about profile table. future to examination result to show up I'm so sorry this is a maple profile table this future to evaluation results to be shown at once you can clearly see the change result can be shown in the cross index table a cross index table provides an understanding of the level of achievement categories frosted defense body awareness as the intellect intellect ation of body image body schema and body concept meet sees as function that support the normal development of body and mind. movement education aims to promote the development of body awareness through the use of playground equipment and activities basis Now let me example the cross practice Target group classes at the specialist schools for the in disabled with the total of 6 students 3 first graders 2 with autism and 3 second graders along with the maple was administered to these 6 children twice once before and once after the class practicesome people provide table and cross index table more used for analysis analysis This is an example of the activity used at the start of class thoughts about 7 minutes this is activity is about 15 minutes Here are some other activities teaching materials for movement education has also been developed. This is named Kara SC and this is KaraTeaching materials here is an activity using the parachute experience happiness in group work. Next looking at the map profile table for the fastest 3 children mostly shows improved development in post your area of the models sensory views.start for the next 3 children show their Improvement means a posture area of the motor necessary domain as well as in deceptive language domain for child e and in the social domain for child f. The result of the second map assessment for the 6 students shows area of Improvement marked with upward Arrow this including achievement of emergence of the item. Area of know changing among with us. In the gross index area of observed development are marked in yellow. To similar similar summarize the development of the individual children O3 ASD children's Improvement in body awareness items means a motorcycle sensory domain as with us in other items with other disabilities different items in which Improvement was observed. In the result all 6 shows Improvement in particular the sweet children is ASD shows remarkable change in several items also the name is ASD shows improved body awareness in restricted area children with other diagnosis including Down syndrome and Microsoft improved in separated items Improvement were observed according to the characteristic of each children.Physical education is important activity for development children abilities. Movement dedication aims to support movement skill development and also support cognitive language and social skills through movement. This result from Napal shows that not only movement skill development but also language and social skills improved. It is clear programs analyzing children's paintings and enjoyment of movement education are active in supporting children with disabilities development. This educational method which can also support individual development using groups are sitting has been suggested as being effective for future educational activities. We believe that believe education that we can run through movement while running to move. The final figures shows the progression of development according to movement therapyThis is the end of my presentation. Thank you very much. (Female Speaker) Thank you very much. Dr. Miwa the kid next presenters uh now we would like to invite the hero fa uh she will be presenting the paper on behalf uh Dr Prasad to come back on this yes okay please welcome Hello, Professor Dr.Maliwan and uh ladies and gentlemen gentlemen I'm here again unfortunately uh Professor Prasad could not uh participate in this uh wonderful conference that is why uh as a core research um I'm presenting for him today. Policy formation of inclusive education in Sri Lanka barriers and breakthroughsum myself I have been connected with Sri Lankan educators in the last I think 30 years that is why I'm presenting about Sri Lanka. And this is a presentation of a background and significance of inclusive education yeah inclusive education is grounded in the principle of educational equity, every child regard to this ability should have equal access to Quality schooling in their community. And of course there is a Solomon statement and UN convention on the right of person with disabilities and UN go for SDGs so all these Advocate inclusive education and uh but what about inclusive education in low and middle income countries LMICs so as I mentioned in the earlier presentation inclusive education differs in Country in Country, and region to region, so that means increase 8 46 formation also differ sowhat the what was the characteristics of Sri Lanka. This is country in South Asia island country very different from but and Sri Lanka is proud of higher human development Indexes such as very high so in but unfortunately Sri Lanka has faced long years of ethnic conflictsand very recently economic crisis since 2022. But anyway Sri Lanka has a long history of special education since 2012. and would you like to see in Sri Lankans inclusive education policy in Sri Lanka policy landscape. Objective of This research This research aims to investigate what is the trajectory of English of Education policy formation in 1 LMICs Sri Lanka what are the barriers and breakthroughs faced by Sri Lanka implementing inclusive education policy and we hope to suggest what the suggestions from this study to other LMICs . Methods; historical analytical approach examining policy documents registration International agreements and National ation or Frameworks from the colonial period through recent development. A review of national policies and the ministerial circulars. The evolution of inclusive education policy and this is 3 historical development of inclusive education in Sri Lanka. It will do soon will inclusive education policy in Sri Lanka span over a century, moving from colonial era, charitable provision to the current rights based approaches. This journey has been marked by gradual shifts from segregation towards integration and from integration towards inclusion were following inclusion in the future. And during the late 90s and early 20s centuries and the British Colonial rule formal education for children with disabilities in those days called sale what's minimal and largely to non-governmental initiativesMissionaries and philanthropic organizations established a pressurized institutions thenof the gaining independence in 1998 Sri Lanka embarked on building a national education system oriented towards social equity a critical returning Point towards the series of reformsby Dr khangura Sri Lanka uh politician in the 1940s switch introduced free education for all children in 1945, the 1960s and 1970s marked the first significant policy shift toward what we now consider inclusive practice. After that the policy framework supporting education of children with disabilities. Milestone in registration was the protection of the right of persons with disability acts number 28 of 1996 this act affirmed the right of persons with disabilities to education then 1997 the government lying forced its commitment to Universal education by issuing the components of Education regulation which made schooling compulsory for all childrenthen the last 2003 the national policy was Landmark policy document and yeah likewise gradually there are steps towards inclusive education as you see from this. Current policy and institutional framework. Recent policy development 2020 circular 37, so this is the mandatory assessment special education assessment and committees in Circular 33 IEPs were introduced and master plan there are 4 pillars access quality practice and culture. So this was developed this master plan was developed through a participatory process which stakeholders and which input from which REACH-SS by JICA Japan International cooperation agents and uh there's another National Education policy Frameworks to kind of Frameworks. Okay institutional framework; there 4 stakeholders Ministry of Education there's a special education branch they are in charge of policy and uh there is a National Institute of Education in Department of inclusive education. They are in charge of curriculum and training. And under the Ministry of Education and in the Provincial Council in each province Zonal Education office in there are education zones and they have their offices and they are in charge of inclusive education implementation and collaboration with NGOs UNICEF and JICA . So barriers and breakthroughs. Barriers; there is a systemic barriers so actually there is the inter agency coordination issues are there. And there is a social culture body is such as Fe Guma lacob awareness they don't economic barriers like funding and resources such kind of economic economic barrier and of course infrastructure barriers are there such as physical accessibility not enough and trained personnel uh and it's not enough. So what are key breakthroughs bigger and policy. Excuse me.Regarding policy security, the master plan for inclusive education represent significant step for covering structured approach to enhance accessory practice and culture in schools. In the pilot project, so this JICA project uh did some uh model inclusive education uh school project under uh in Ministry of Education and teacher training module and resource materials were also developed. And it is very important don't wait disabled people's organizations. So let's see less distance from Regional experiences this is companies with other on South Asian countries just skip this slide. And recommendations; Align national laws which UNCRPD building it is necessary to update and arrange National disability laws who is the UN CRPD ensure all educational policies embed inclusive education as a core object which mechanism for accountability and monitoring. institutionalized teacher training on inclusive education. It is necessary to invest in continuous professional development for teachers, school leaders and education officers inclusive education should be a core component of service and in service training. It is necessary to enhance collaboration among Ministries, NGOs and teacher unions and parent associations participatory policy making ensured that diverse voices especially persons with disabilities shape the policy process. It is important to develop inclusive education indicators and disagreed Data Systems to monitor progress. And using data to address disparities across gender religion and type of disability. So Sri Lanka commitment to include inclusive education is anchored in both is National values and international obligations. The evolution of policy Frameworks from special education inclusion deflects a broader shift towards equity and human rights. However significant barriers remain, particularly in policy coherence resource allocation and attitude you know change to ensure no charge is Deaf behind Sri Lanka now consolidate its policy gains through vectiv implementation multisectoral collaboration and sustained investment in inclusive practices. The future of inclusive education depends not just on Visionary policies but all every day actions in classrooms and communities andso special thanks go to National Institute of Education, Ministry of Japan International cooperation agency and this work was supported by mixed Ministry of Education in Japan and this is a home page of this grant is a references and thank you and Arikato . This is the end of my presentation. (Miss Alice) Thank you very much. Our next presenter um uh Mr she Sheila will you be ready for the next presentation with both of you be going up or just you you'll be going in right okay all right our next presenter is Mrs. Sushila Gurung from uh wansel Institute of the deaf in Bhutan she'll be talking with the development of bhutanese sign language interpretations service. (Mrs. Sushila) Good morning to everyone. here me so I'm Sushila and uh um I'm a teacher um teacher working at um the only deaf School in Bhutan that is wangel Institute for the Deaf so um today uh before I jump into my presentation first of all I would like to Dr.Maliwan here and the reason I would like to share with you all is um Institute was started by our Dr.Maliwan here Thank you so much doctor. So we are here so we are fortunate that um we have been like wangel was started by a good hand and then we are doing good now so well bigger is a job have done as said so here I start my presentation but I would like to say that I have my colleague here. and then we work together at The Institute so we work in um team which we normally call it as a Putin sign language uh research and document Foundation team so we have deaf adults and then we have issue his heart of hearing and then me um the hearing person so we are a team there. Okay before I um go into the presentation I would like to briefly talk about my Institution because uh it is important that uh I share with you the roles and responsibility and the mandates of our school first.So there is a picture for you here this is our small Institute and then so we are a government school and then we have hostile facility as I said earlier that it is the only deaf School in Bhutan. So we have to provide the boarding facility otherwise we won't be having any students with us. And then um the total number of students currently in 2025 we have around um 15 students and the curriculum of the grades that we have is uh from keep you PP to 12. so as you can see there there is 1 additional Preparatory class which we normally call it the name Preparatory so you will not see this uh class or the grade in other schools in Bhutan was just in our Institute and I will tell you why. The reason is our deaf children, they do not have the ecd for them the deaf children so when they come to our school um they directly come from homes without any language input or without any ECCD like experience so that's why we have kept uh this uh Preparatory class to give them language that is good news sign language it is full intense goodness sign language course class for the students to bridge the gap of that eccd so we have both vocational and um academic pathways and then we follow the national curriculum. So um when it comes to the teaching approach it's bilingual and I can say like our main medium of instruction is goodness sign language. And then our other 2 languages we have are zonka that is our national language and then English so this is just a picture for you to um look at our vocational traits there that we have. So as the Dr. Hiroko was explaining about once I having um the sign language Research Institute so I think this is the 1 that we uh have as I mentioned earlier it's a small team yet we have it and then um we are doing greatSo um our main business here. So basically the presentation that I have it's about interpreting as you have already seen the title it was actually a neat based assessment or analysis. So we had like um testimonials and interviews and also like we had a questionnaire for the respondents. So um I would like to play on a video for you before I move into the object. I hope the video works.I know it was a very quick and short video um but I hope it was clear so um her name is Sonam children so she lives um simple that is the capital of Bhutan. And then I mean like she has a deaf from the thenew deaf community and The Institute that I work is in borrow it's just 2 hours drive from the capital city so she lives there and this is her experience. Okay we have another one. I want to go to hospital but there is no individual I have to call you number and uh the next one. I also want to go to but as there is no interpreter I cannot go I'm in my husband and myself we cannot go to the court so you see um I just hope thank youis also um living in thimphu that is simple to have community. So this is her experience of um how it affects her life not having interpreter in her um area that is in Temple region. So that is the very reason why we have this project and then the objective is like as I said earlier our school is situated in Boron. Okay that is 2 hours um Journey from though so there are both uh Jeff people living in both the areas so in Temple um there are no interpreters based in Temple in borrow we have because we teachers we interpret for the students which usually happens everywhere we know that but the adults deaf adults who are living in Temple they do not have this privilege of having the inter in day-to-day life so the project the objective of this project is to createa group or pool of interpreters away from our Institute so that they can also serve the other deaf adults who are in need in life and another region is this is the first um in um starting this interpreting um business I can say that work that you are trying to do the reason is right now. We do not have um any higher uh Secondary School for the... I mean like higher education for the Deaf but it has to have in 1 day so this is a good start for us by putting up this interpretinf couse so that we are preparing for the future I know we are very late compared to Thailand and other countries where you have started so uh many years ago like around 30-40 years ago. We are starting now but it's um never let them never. So I'm going to again. So let's look at the data here it's um we had uh 85 responses that we have and then you can see it's like male dominant usually like when it comes to deaf but we do not know the reason why. So this is the age uand then the majority is 18 to 25 you can see because the majority of uh the uh respondents they were from our Institute so you can see like 18 to 25 is um it's 49% 49 and then when it comes to the um demographic and uh education here so you will see um degree of education like primary secondary and even vocational. And also divers job or occupation when it comes to death and then you'll just get a glance of what are different types of jobs that our deaf do input term are like Bakery and when I say Bakery you can also say like um it was also a great help and influence from Thailand. assistant when we like long ago came here for the training and then that has continued and then it is 1 of the jobs that deaf take it. And we have deaf instructor and then painter students and so on so when um information when it comes to survey we facilitated that questionaire in Buddhist sign language so it was um said that the most accessible format or understanding the accessibility by our deaf through the interpreters. So the reason I would like to say is um because our country is not so Advanced when it comes to technology so like cochlear implant and hearing aids so it's not so like Advanced so that's why like we have to rely on the interpreters for the information accessibility.So um as I said earlier when it comes to our Institute the deaf students and a deaf teachers there. We can say like privileged enough because like um we teachers are there as a teacher and The Interpreter but when it comes to others they said like these are the different areas that they that they want the interpreters because they want to be part of the information that they get in the country.So they said like all the public places even schools and then even in workplace they said that then it form of support. And then we occasionally like have some species from King on like many significant uh topics and then messages from the King and they say they missed that. which they find it very excluded because there are no interpreters to interpret for them and then there are debates going on in Parliament. And they say that they have to vote but the thing is they have no information who to vote for they needed for that as well . So now go back to our teacher individuals as I said earlier. So what we have found out like as I said we do not have any formal standardized professional interpreters in return. so we are just teacher interpreters and then what they said is yes we understand somehow understand so that is the level of what we can give to the deaf. And this really made us think what we need to do next. And another is like do you like feel that you are getting enough they say no only the there were there in borrow, they get all the accessibility not us. So we had collected as just for information we have 3 deaf community is in Bhutan it is uh borrow as I said earlier and tiemoue we have but it is very far away and then we could not collect any data from them. So we had 85 respondents. Okay so from that uh neat based analysis or assessment what we have no doubt that there is a need for aggregated um interpreting course and um we need to have a curriculum for that and then in future you might have to go for some diploma or higher qualification level for the interpreting. So currently we do not have anything. And then the validation should be done. We need to have some interpreter like um of course in the teacher training um Institutes that is for sustainability. So, sorry I didn't hear you. no interpreters Outside The Institute so now recently with one of the funding support from Canada we could uh frame the just curriculum or we can say it as a of course. And then that is soon we are going to roll out that and this is done by our Institute wel in to the deaf and that will be rolled out in August so just for your information our Institute is the mandate is to teach the heart of hearing and deaf children. Actually, but the thing is we are going beyond our mandate because there are um when it comes to deaf deaf education sign language and interpreting that is um relatively A New Concept Still A New Concept for many people in Bhutan so we are considered experts you know no you do not know much when we are still learning but you have to give our input so that's why we have a curriculum here now. And then it's going like uh we are going to roll out in August. And to talk about something like I can say it's like icing on the cake. The third one that is like um we got a proposal from and then they are going to support and then going to sign a retainer with us to put up this interpreting course and as a social Enterprise so this is ongoing we are working on it we have missed several times. I mean like meetings but we are working on it so hopefully this will be a successful story for us. So the our idea of having that social enterprise is this and then it will sit under um disabled people's organization of the tongue and the reason I have earlier told is like we are a government School so we cannot run uh social Enterprises where we are generating some income and then using that income to pay the interpreters and then so on. So that's why we are sitting under a GPU and then collaborating with DPO to um make this work. So this is my last slide so please watch this video and then stuff and then she works in um disabled people's organization of return as a program officer so let's hear what she has to say about uh program that is coming up in August I think that. It is because deaf people and the deaf Community will have access to information. We will get more information from interpretor. Before we had no information and have barriers existing information during meetings BBs and different public places. We feel excluded. Now I hope that the course will be successful and we will have access to information. This will really make us independent. This information accessibility also ensures inclusion and equity. for the hearing people. That was Hope from this upcoming course. Okay thank you so much. (Miss Alice) Thank you Dr. Sushila uh that was a very informative uh presentation and I've seen the hard work that you guys have done in Bhutan because seen you many many years and every time you present if something is moving forward and congratulations to all of you and I hope you succeed in all your programs another round of applause for Dr. Suchila oh sorry Dr. Syshila had some questions from the floor if you don't mind don't sign language interpreters do you have in Thailand in Bhutan so it's a bit tricky I can say that it's a bit tricky to uh answer as I said like when it comes to interpreters it's just a teacher interpreters so you have just a handful error 5 to 6 only and then um this uh teacher interpreters have to move around in events and programs and meetings and even like National TV that is bvs so it's just handful 4 to 5 offers may I go to take care of the entire country only 45 yes so that is that's hard work hard work and um the main responsibility is being diverted because there is a need for the deaf accessibility of information for the dev and then it's very significant for those deaf who are in Temple regionally and then the teachers have there um Mandate of teaching here in the classroom so you know it's the balancing is becoming quite difficult so hopefully we'll be able to get that done with our course yeah because you you I think you've seen the Canadian government is uh the Canadian NGO is going to sponsor a course yes where you hope to get more interpreters correct? (Mrs. Sushila) Yes so with this uh August uh training I mean it's a course for around um it's a crash course I said because like in other countries it's around 4 years 3 years 4 years course interpretive scores we are doing it in 1 year because we need to rush to produce a few more um interpreters will be serving in other plaxes. (Miss Alice) Do you have many candidates who want to learn sign interpreters. (Mrs. Sushila) There are some uh potential candidates and then we are soon going to announce and they said they will apply it so hopefully yeah that'll be very good thank you. all the hard work that you're putting into thank you. (Miss Alice) 1 more 1 more before you go just give us a minute 1 more question. (Miss Alice) Bhutan do you have a curriculum for just the deaf people or is it inclusive is it just a curriculum for your deaf students you have a curriculum that you have mandated for them or... (Mrs. Sushila) human in our for our... (Miss Alice) students who are students who are in your your in your classrooms as I uh showed in 1 of my slides we follow National curriculum National curriculum yes what is the national curriculum so it's the same with the mainstream ah okay. (Dr. Maliwan) Same curriculum with the normal children using English. (Mrs. Sushila) yes our video of instruction um uh in other mainstream schools is uh English except for the language zonka but in our instit use it would be sign language the medium of instruction. (Miss Alice) They want to ask you a question in Thailand Thai is the main language that's spoken but in Bhutan your curriculum is in in Bhutan in English. You don't use the button is like I don't know if that's correct word the button is language as well or is it all English why is it all English?. (Mrs. Sushila) So are you um asking about the mainstream or are we ask but our Institute currency so our uh medium of instruction is uh design language sign language okay and other 2 additional languages that we teach are English. (Dr. Maliwan) They use put on this side language but the medium of instruction is English written in in English right. Is that correct?. (Mrs. Sushila) Yeah sign language our students they learn 3 languages yeah so um Warners sign language another Songkhla and then English yes 3 languages 3 languages yeah 3 languages you only get 1 language in authority move Thank you very much. Any more questions. (Miss Alice) Your sign language interpretors are Bhutanese but what happens if a deaf person correct me if I'm wrong if a deaf person is categorized the police station or hospitals or even the courts uh 1 is there anybody there to help them out correct is that correct yeah (Mrs. Sushila) Yeah so um it's quite a difficult situation in Bhutan when it comes to this right now yeah as I said the interpreters that we have are based in The Institute and their main uh primary responsibility is teaching right so when there is a need there what happens those organization or entity or whoever is in need of interpreting like for example police and Court. They call our office school principal and then they asked that um okay somebody is there and then why don't you send interpreters and we have had so many cases where like um our interpreters they had to go and then you know interpret for the deaf who has been like in the court or um some detention due to some like reasons. So it's just a Institute only right now. Did I get it correct your answer question yeah. (Dr. Maliwan) like in Thailand like in Thailand if As an interpreter we go to the hospital for special specific problem of uh our customer we use a assignor a deaf interpreter or deaf helper so that they can talk to the patient and then we as an hearing interpreter learn and speak to the medical team or to the law team. so that you need to train deaf interpreter. you have one with you right so like you use or something. you know the people who are good in in their sign language and working as your coworker. That's how we do with Thailand and other countries as well. (Mrs. Sushila) So thank you Doctor. yes, very true and then I can say like we have taken a small step in this uh to um because I have seen all over like Thailand and other countries that have been to and then that I've seen and read there are deaf interpreters and they are very like skilled and good at it gradually that will be another project for us to train the deaf and then we have already started where especially like we are just doing with few you share is hard of hearing and another deaf we have who is profound deaf, so we have started the simple program in the school where we are doing kind of a shadow interpreting. where we are doing the shadow interpreting and then we are just giving them the experience of being the deaf in future. They understand how it should be and then what would be the situation later in Bhutan when we have the deaf interpreter, so thank you Doctor we have already started and then we hope that will be successful in that also. (Miss Alice) I'm sure you will with someone like you there I'm sure things will move forward. (Dr. Maliwan) Because when I first in Bhutan 2002 right? I met with the deaf adult group of deodorant that's how we start the education for a deaf in Bhutan with their friend thank you. (Miss Alice) Thank you. (Male Speaker) The trouble a long distance for someone from Paro to Temple how do we do how do you deal with that oh wait you're based in Paro right what if somebody's required in another Province far away from Paro and they need interpreters is it the same situation when they'll call the school and send someone there or is that not a possibility at all so it's it's a very sad story so it's not possible but now because of a techn ology now we are yeah so some um places which are far away but if we have a connection actually Network so we can so the temple also like though it's just 2 hours. so what happens is like the Deaf from there they call us and then we try to interpret the for them uh in hospital and different areas. Just a short question that you know. 1 more question. Teachers who are interpreters do they travel by their own car are they they do get compensated sensation (Miss Alice) money for the like travel expenses assuming that yes no no the teachers if you have to go somewhere like outside of the station. (Mrs. Sushila) Yeah it depends it depends on what type of assignment we are um going with if it is something official yes okay we do okay yeah whatever some unofficial and then but we want to attend because how you feel it's important for us, then no. Like here right now all of us so we are like so happy that logistic is taken care by the organizer Indra and then Dr. Maliwan and your team but when it comes to other expenses we are like we have to bear our own yeah it's a pleasure for. (Miss Alice) Thank you uh sorry Sushila last final question please. okay okay then pull back uh did you the the training for silent sign language interpreters training get a membership card so you're planning the 1-year crash course the interpreters will get a certificate that they've passed it that they can use. Are you paid to do. (Mrs. Sushila) so this is yeah so this crash course that we have for 1 year after its we have 3 levels that will be for 1 year and once they are uh done with this course as I said earlier uh disabled people's organization of Bhutan we are collaborating with them, so jointly Institute for the Deaf and then dpov we are going to issue certificate uh to the um those trainings who will complete the course so it's a kind of what to say like non like what is it it's informal I can say yeah but I think we need to start it that way love it but she's I'll look I'll look forward to that doctor yeah but Dr. Maliwan needed in Bhutan. (Miss Alice) yeah okay all right now yeah thank you so much another round of applause for Mrs susheela yeah before we go for a break I just wanted to let you know that uh they're going to be 2 things happening after 1:00. So the normal process from 1 to 4 will be here in this Hall where our principal Sendo will be a keynote speaker and other speakers will be presenting. And also we'll have a breakout session upstairs on the second floor Leah I see you standing there sitting there can you stand up so we know you're here. This is uh Miss Leah from the Philippines she'll be giving a workshop on anybody uh who wants to learn about AB uh teaching cochlear implant kits to understand okay so that's going to happen on the second floor I will be with Leah interpreting that in Thai and Dr. Mackey and Channel this will be here uh taking care of you guys so now we break for lunch and see you back here at 1 pm thank you very much enjoy your lunch. Current sessions Indonesia from Bhutan who will uh give the presentation downstairs on the second floor. There is a workshop so the presentation of different presenters so you have translation kits. So please contact at the booth so use your ID card. Translation tool kits, may I do. (Mr. Anucha) May I inform you that could you please finish our your lunch before 12:45. Thank you very much.