Zhana Yankova
University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski”
Abstract. The present study focuses on an actual problem of inclusive education, i.e. providing additional support to children and students with special educational needs during training. A special component of the additional support for personal development of SEN children and students is assistive technologies. Through such technologies, academic knowledge and skill acquisition are fostered, learners are encouraged to be more independent and are given the opportunity to perform assignments in the training process as equals, in respect to their peers. The present study includes a survey among the pedagogical community, and the results show that the percentage of those who are familiar with and use assistive technologies in the training of SEN learners is low (12%). A presentation of assistive technologies used in education according to the functional difficulties of learners has been included in this article.
Keywords: additional support for personal development; inclusive education; children and students with special educational needs; assistive technologies
