Positive Psychology Program for equal Access for Children and Adolescents with Disabilities

Kokotova, Tatjana and Miloseva, Lence and Angelovska, Beti and Milenkovic, Jelena (2012) Positive Psychology Program for equal Access for Children and Adolescents with Disabilities. In: Book of case studies: Service Learning Success Stories in Macedonia and Croatia. Macedonian American Alumni Association, Skopje, 2012, pp. 77-85. ISBN 978-608-4700-04-3

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Abstract

The theoretical frame of this paper was grounded in positive psychology programs and social ecology theory. Our main aim was to raise awareness against discrimination toward disabled children and adolescents. In the frame of the project Equal Access through Service Learning for Persons with Disabilities, we conducted our Service Learning Project, on which we based our paper. It consists of two parts. The main aim of the first part of the study was to identify students’discrimination attitudes towards disabled people. After we gain results from the first part of the study, based on School-wide Positive
Behaviour Support project, we modified and created psycho-educative workshops for secondary school students and for students at the Faculty of Educational Science. We believe that building positive psychology environment and “flourishing schools” will be one of the prospective ways in order to create inclusive educational environment.
According to the students’ opinion, based on the results in this survey, we can conclude that there are elements of separation in society in which students live and study (64%); students have not felt different than the others or that they don’t belong to that group (66%); they have recognized different behavior towards people with disabilities (20%); but personally, they have never experienced different behaviour toward somebody based
on differences (83%). We agree that the psycho-educative workshops that we conducted could be an effective way to raise awareness against discrimination toward people with
disabilities. Through psycho-educative workshops we emphasized the importance of service learning and involvement in the community in creating equal access for children and adolescents with disabilities.
Keywords: equal access; children and adolescents; disabilities; positive psychology

Item Type: Book Section
Subjects: Social Sciences > Psychology
Divisions: Faculty of Educational Science
Depositing User: Lence Miloseva
Date Deposited: 24 Jan 2013 11:28
Last Modified: 24 Jan 2013 11:28
URI: https://eprints.ugd.edu.mk/id/eprint/5079

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