Are Czech Children’s Care Homes Still Using Cage Beds? - Text 5

Are Czech Children’s Care Homes Still Using Cage Beds?

A On Tuesday night, the BBC broadcast a report on its 10 O’Clock News programme, showing children in Czech care homes locked-up in caged beds. The use of cage beds in Czech institutions such as children’s homes has provoked international outcry in the past, and at the beginning of 2007, they were banned by Czech law. The report suggests, however, that the majority of Czech children’s care homes are continuing to use them, and violating the law – but the government claims that nothing illegal is shown in the report, and that the beds featured are more like cots than cages.

B Cage beds in Czech institutions have created uproar in the past. In 2004, the novelist JK Rowling wrote to President Václav Klaus, calling for such beds to be outlawed in the country’s hospitals. The government acted, and cage beds were banished from Czech psychiatry wards. In early 2007, a new law was drafted which banned them from the country’s children’s care homes as well. But on Tuesday, the BBC aired a report which suggested that care homes were breaking the law, and that the practice of locking up children – some well into their teens – in caged beds continued.

C In the past, the use of such beds was defended by those who said that a lack of trained staff meant that children might hurt themselves if left to run free, and that tranquilizing patients was an even less humane option.

D Today, the Ministry of Social Affairs reacted to the BBC report. Štěpán Černoušek is a ministry spokesperson: “The point is that the beds shown in the BBC report are not cages. These are normal children’s beds with removable side-flaps, which according to Czech law can be used in individual cases, on the basis of a by-law and doctor’s recommendation. The purpose is to protect children from injuring themselves.” Does the Ministry plan to investigate the BBC’s allegations? “Yes, inspectors from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs will go to the care homes which were shown in the BBC report to see if any law has been broken. But from the images shown on the BBC, it doesn’t look like any law has been violated.”

E The beds shown in the BBC report may not fit the Czech legal definition of a cage bed. But it’s certain that a lot of people have been outraged by the images, and that the Czech Republic is now under intense international pressure to overhaul its network of children’s care homes.

allegation – neopodstatněné tvrzení

cot – dětská postýlka, visuté lůžko

to banish – vykázat

to draft – navrhnout

to outrage – pobouřit

to overhaul – renovovat, vyšetřit

tranquilizing – utišování

uproar – vřava, povyk

1) Read the article and match each of the headings to a paragraph.

1 The Czech Republic has to overhaul its network of children’s care homes

2 Tranquilizing patients was more human

3 Opinion of the Ministry of Social Affairs

4 A report suggests using cage beds by children’s homes

5 Rawling wants cage beds to be outlawed

2) Read the article and answer the questions.

1 What is the article about?

2 What does JK Rawling want? What has she done?

3 What does the Ministry of Social Affairs say about cage beds? What are they used for?

4 What will the Ministry of Social Affairs probably have to do?

3) Explain the following words.

1 cage bed

2 care home

3 illegal

4 trained staff

5 violate the law

4) Answer the following questions.

Where can be children without parents placed? What does “Our Child” Foundation do? What is an adoption? Who can adopt children?

Adjusted to:

http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/are-czech-childrens-care-homes-still-using-cage-beds

Foster Care Faces Strain - Text 4

Foster Care Faces Strain

A International criticism is mounting over the disproportionate number of Czech children in state-run institutions and orphanages, and local experts are concerned that planned budget cuts will only further paralyse a system already stretched beyond its bounds. The Czech Republic has around 20,000 children in institutions – comprised of infant diagnostic institutes, orphanages, educational institutions and facilities for immediate social care – according to 2010 statistics from the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry.

B That adds up to one out of every 99 children being institutionalized as compared with one in 287 in France, one in 257 in Hungary and one in 137 in Poland, prompting criticism from international groups like Eurochild and UNICEF. The European Union and the United Nations are pushing for members to deinstitutionalize children, and the Czech Republic responded with a National Action Plan for 2009-11 which seeks to promote social work allowing families to keep their children and place other kids into foster care.

C Gracián Svačina, 20, was placed in an institution at the age of 10 and is now studying journalism at university, but said he is a rare exception, as many children who leave institutions end up back on the street or with the abusive families they were taken from. "Institutions taught me how to take care of myself, but it’s not like having a family, where you have concrete relations with concrete people – not in a house full of some strange governesses," he said. "I can’t say if I had been raised in a proper family I would have made it to Cambridge, but I guess I would have more trust in people."

D Svačina is one of the 0.6 percent raised in institutions that study at the university level, according to Spolu dětem, a nongovernmental organization that works to improve education in institutions. Adult life after an institutionalized childhood is not an easy one. A 2007 survey by the Interior Ministry showed that out of the 17,454 children surveyed, 9,751 had committed a crime - 6,542 of them after leaving institutional care.

E Under the current system, even willing parents have to wait almost two years to get a foster child, and only around 1,000 children have been evaluated as fit by social workers to go to foster homes, according to Chris Gardiner, president of the International Foster Care Association and the Eurochild representative in the Czech Republic. There are few training and counselling centres for foster parents outside of large cities, he said, and because many institutionalized children have physical and emotional disabilities, the lack of support has made foster parenting an unattractive prospect.

add up to – dávat součet

disproportionate – nepřiměřěný

mount over – zvedat se nad

prompt – vybízet, podněcovat

to promote – propagovat, prosazovat

1) Read the article and match each of the headings to a paragraph.

1 Pushing organizations to deinstitutionalize children

2 Gracián Svačina

3 Criticism over number of institutionalized children

4 Foster care

5 Adult life after an institutionalized childhood

2) Read the article and answer the questions.

1 What is the article about?

2 Compare numbers of institutionalized children in Europe.

3 Who is Gracián Svačina?

4 What is the adult life of institutionalized children like?

5 What are the problems of willing parents?

3) Explain the following words.

1 state-run institution

2 orphanage

3 infant diagnostic institute

4 commit a crime

5 survey

4) Answer the following questions.

What possibilities are there for children without parents? What are reasons for life without parents? Who and how can help children on the street?

Adjusted to:

http://www.praguepost.com/news/6152-foster-care-faces-strain.html

SOS Children’s Villages - Text 3

SOS Children’s Villages

A The goal of SOS Children’s Villages is to provide children whose original family do not want them or cannot look after them with a new home full of love and understanding. The first SOS Children’s Village was established in 1949 in the Austrian city of Imst. Unfortunately, the need to care for children at risk, who have been taken from their original families for various reasons, is still a topical issue. Consequently, SOS Children’s Villages were also established in other parts of the world during the second half of the 20th century. Today, there are villages operating in 132 countries around the globe.

B In the former Czechoslovakia, the idea of SOS Children’s Villages appeared in the second half of the 1960s in connection with the general liberalisation of the political situation and the concomitant mobilisation of civil society. At present, the SOS Children’s Villages Association runs three SOS Children’s Villages in the Czech Republic. The oldest of these was established in 1969 in Karlovy Vary – Doubí. In 1973, an SOS village began operating in Chvalčov, a small village beneath Hostýn Hill in the Zlín region. Another SOS village was subsequently opened in Brno – Medlánky in 2003.

C The construction of the SOS Children’s Village in Karlovy Vary – Doubí began in 1969, and it welcomed its first foster families just a year later. The SOS Children’s Village in Karlovy Vary is therefore the oldest such village in the Czech Republic. Altogether, there are 12 family homes available in the SOS Children’s Village, and each home is used by one foster family.

D The homes in the village were completely refurbished in the years 2000 – 2001. For organisational reasons, however, the SOS Children’s Village in Karlovy Vary was wound down in 2005 and it was transformed into an education centre for the SOS Kinderdorf International association, which is a worldwide umbrella organisation for individual national SOS Children’s Villages associations. The SOS Children’s Village renewed its activity in January 2007 and new foster families gradually began arriving in the village.

E At present, there are a total of 23 children in 7 foster families living in our village. One of these families lives outside the area of the SOS Children’s Village. Because all the family homes are not yet occupied, we have provided two houses to the Ostrov Children’s Home for the time being. The remaining four houses are awaiting new foster parents and we are looking forward to their being occupied and new children finding a home here. Besides 12 family homes for foster parents, we have 2 houses nearby for retired foster carers and 1 house in Dalovice for youngsters who have grown up.

concomitant – průvodní jev

refurbished – zrenovovaný

1) Read the article and match each of the headings to a paragraph.

1 SOS Children’s Village in Karlovy Vary – Doubí

2 History of SOS Children’s Villages

3 The SOS Kinderdorf International association

4 Introduction

5 Foster families living in the village

2) Read the article and answer the questions.

1 What is the article about?

2 What are SOS Children’s Villages?

3 Describe history and location of Czech SOS Children’s Villages.

4 What happened in 2005?

5 What is the SOS Kinderdorf International association?

6. What is the situation in the SOS Children’s Village in Karlovy Vary today like?

3) Explain the following words.

1 children at risk

2 foster family

3 Children’s Village

4 retired foster carer

5 youngsters

4) Answer the following questions.

Who are foster parents? Who can become foster parents? Which children cannot be adopted?

Adjusted to:

http://www.sos-vesnicky.cz/en/our-activity/sos-children-s-villages/

International Missing Children’s Day: Up to Ten Thousand Czech Children Go Missing Every Year - Text 2

International Missing Children’s Day: Up to Ten Thousand Czech Children Go Missing Every Year

A Every year the Czech police receive several thousand reports of missing children. In 2004, the figure came close to ten thousand – that’s in a country with a population of only ten million. Humanitarian organisations hope to bring awareness to the large number of children missing around the world and join forces to find more effective ways to reduce that number.

B The Czech “Our Child” Foundation, a member of the European Federation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children, recently completed its study and came up with shocking results. Zuzana Baudyšová is the director of “Our Child”: “The outcome of the study is a little bit pessimistic. At the moment, there are 350 children who have run away from institutional care and who the police are searching for. Sixty-five more have run away from their homes. So that’s another category of children who are at risk. Both figures are very high.”

C With time the great majority of the missing children in the Czech Republic do turn up, and statistics include only those cases reported to the police. The number of children who are abducted is unknown but it is believed to make up only a fraction of the total number of those who go missing, most of whom are runaways. But while the figures for those who run away from institutional care have increased by eighty-five percent in the last two years, the numbers of children who left home or are believed to have been abducted have dropped by some thirty percent.

D Although most missing children are found, Mrs Baudyšová points to the fact that in the short time they spend out on the streets, they are at a very high risk of being abused: “We are afraid that we have been recording a phenomenon of commercial sexual exploitation – child pornography, the trade in children, and sexual exploitation. This category of children is very much influenced and prepared to be abused by this new phenomenon. Most of them are street children without money or food and they are prepared to accept any offer in order to survive even to be in a pornographic video or be clients of paedophiles.”

E In the Czech Republic, there is still much room to battle the problem more effectively. The country still lacks a monitoring system that records and analyses every missing child case – why a child has run away, what places children tend to run away from, and where they seek refuge. With such information at hand, the country’s organisations dealing with child care could join forces, guarantee children better conditions and prevent them from taking to the streets and becoming victims of abuse.

awareness – povědomí

exploitation – zneužívání, vykořisťování

figure – počet

to lack – postrádat

to turn up – objevit se

1) Read the article and match each of the headings to a paragraph.

1 The statistics of missing children

2 The study of “Our Child” Foundation

3 The Czech Republic needs a monitoring system

4 Large number of children missing around the world

5 Street children are risk of being abused

2) Read the article and answer the questions.

1 What is the article about?

2 Who does “Our Child” Foundation work with? How does it help?

3 Who is Zuzana Baudyšová? What does she say about missing children?

4 What are problems of street children?

3) Explain the following words.

1 institutional care

2 abducted

3 runaway

4 to abuse

5 paedophile

4) Answer the following questions.

Why do children leave home? Why do children run away from institutional care? Who and how can help children in need? What are dangers that street children encounter?

Adjusted to:

http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/international-missing-childrens-day-up-to-ten-thousand-czech-children-go-missing-every-year

Britain’s Street Children - Text 1

Britain’s Street Children

A Lee tries to block out memories of his childhood. He was one of five children born to a drug dealing father and heroin addict mother in the Northwest of England. His father was sent to prison when he was young and his mother turned their home into a “dosshouse for junkies” as he puts it. Lee and his brothers and sisters were often beaten: he remembers being locked in a cellar for days. His elder sister tried to look after the others, get them dressed, fed and off to school, but was only a child herself.

B When he was 13, social services finally intervened. Lee wanted to live with his grandmother, but instead he was placed in foster care. It was then that he started to run away, sleeping in sheds and cars. When he ran out of clothes he stole luggage from trains. “I was walking around in clothes that were twice the size for me,” he laughs. He shoplifted for food, and then quickly moved onto robbery and burglary to get cash.

C Sometimes people would find him asleep in the morning. He used to run as quickly as he could. One homeowner who found him in her shed used to invite him in for “bacon butty” – though she always called the police. Time after time Lee was taken back to the foster home, only to run away again. On occasion he stayed on the run for months. He saw gangs of youths hanging around, but he was never attacked, or propositioned. “I could handle myself. I wasn’t scared of that. I had a knife. And I was a loner,” he says.

D After two years, he was arrested for robbery, convicted, and sent to a Secure Unit. Released, he was allowed to go and live with his grandmother, where his siblings were. It wasn’t long before he was back in prison though: he found two teenagers breaking into his grandmother’s shed, and attacked them.

E Now 21, Lee is unemployed and pessimistic about his future. His primary education was disrupted; he only spent two weeks at secondary school. He can barely read and write. Lee was one of eight young people who I met in one middle sized town in northwest England.

bacon butty – krajíc chleba s máslem a šunkou

be propositioned – dostat nabídku

dosshouse – noclehárna

on occasion – občas

Secure Unit – výchovný ústav

to disrupt – přerušit

1) Read the article and match each of the headings to a paragraph.

1 Lee was a loner

2 Lee started to run away

3 In prison

4 Lee’s family

5 Lee’s life today

2) Read the article and answer the questions.

1 What is the article about?

2 What was Lee’s family like?

3 When and how did social services intervene?

4 What crimes did Lee commit?

5 What is his life today like?

3) Explain the following words.

1 heroin addict

2 junkie

3 to shoplift

4 gang of youths

5 robbery

4) Answer the following questions.

When and why are children institutionalized? What are typical crimes they commit? How can they be punished? When do children become criminally responsible?

Adjusted to:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8563000/8563644.stm

Children Without Parents – Vocabulary 2

abducted – unesený

adoption – adopce

awareness – povědomí

cage bed – klecová postel

care home – dětský domov

caregiver – pečovatel

children at risk – děti v nebezpečí

children’s home – dětský domov

Children’s Village – dětská vesnička

commit a crime – spáchat trestný čin

community-based setting – uspořádání založené na komunitě

custody of the state – péče szátu

exploitation – zneužívání, vykořisťování

foster care – pěstounská péče

foster family – pěstounská rodina

foster parent – pěstoun

gang of youths – gang mladistvých

group home – dětský domov

guardianship – poručnictví, opatrovnictví

heroin addict – závislý na heroinu

illegal - nezákonný

infant diagnostic institute – diagnostický ústav pro nezletilé

institutional care – instituční péče

junkie – závislák

kin – příbuzný (pokrevný)

orphan – sirotek

orphanage – sirotčinec, osiřelost

paedophile - pedofil

parental responsibility – rodičovská odpovědnost

permanent placement – stale umístění

prompt – vybízet, podněcovat

rehabilitation centre – dětský domov

relative – příbuzný

retired foster carer – pěstoun v důchodu

reunification – opětovné sjednocení

robbery – loupež

runaway – utečenec, na útěku

Secure Unit – výchovný ústav

state-run institution – státem provozovaná instituce

stranger – cizinec

survey – průzkum

to abuse – zneužít

to educate – vzdělávat

to lack – postrádat

to maintain continuity – udržovat souvislost

to promote – propagovat, prosazovat

to shoplift – krást v obchodě

to turn up – objevit se

trained staff – školený personál

violate the law – porušovat zákon

youngsters – mladiství

youth treatment centre – dětský domov

Children Without Parents – Vocabulary 1

Explain the following words:

adoption

care home

caregiver

children’s home

Children’s Village

commit a crime

foster parent

gang of youths

heroin addict

infant diagnostic institute

junkie

kin

orphan

paedophile

rehabilitation centre

relative

robbery

runaway

Secure Unit

state-run institution

stranger

to abuse

to educate

to shoplift

trained staff

violate the law

youngsters

youth treatment centre

Children Without Parents – Questions

Answer the following questions:

What possibilities are there for children without parents?

What are reasons for life without parents?

Who and how can help children on the street?

Why do children leave home?

Why do children run away from institutional care?

Who and how can help children in need?

What are dangers that street children encounter?

Where can be children without parents placed?

What does “Our Child” Foundation do?

What is an adoption?

Who can adopt children?

Who are foster parents?

Who can become a foster parent?

Which children cannot be adopted?

When and why are children institutionalized?

What are typical crimes they commit?

How can they be punished?

When do children become criminally responsible?

Children Without Parents – Study Material

Orphanage is the name to describe a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable to care for them. Parents, and sometimes grandparents, are legally responsible for supporting children, but in the absence of these or other relatives willing to care for the children, they become a ward of the state, and orphanages are a way of providing for their care and housing. Children are educated within or outside of the orphanage.

Orphanages provide an alternative to foster care or adoption by giving orphans a community-based setting in which they live and learn. In the worst cases, orphanages can be dangerous and unregulated places where children are subject to abuse and neglect. Today, the term orphanage has negative connotations. Other alternative names are group home, children’s home, rehabilitation centre and youth treatment centre.

Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another who is not kin and permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents. Unlike guardianship or other systems designed for the care of the young, adoption is intended to effect a permanent change in status and as such requires societal recognition, either through legal or religious sanction. Some societies have enacted specific laws governing adoption whereas others have endeavoured to achieve adoption through less formal means, via contracts that specified inheritance rights and parental responsibilities.

Foster care is the term used for a system in which a minor who has been made a ward is placed in the private home of a state certified caregiver referred to as a “foster parent”. The foster parent is responsible for the day to day care. Foster care is intended to be a short term situation until a permanent placement can be made.

·         Reunification with the biological parent(s) – when it is deemed in the child’s best interest. This is generally the first choice.

·         Adoption – preferably by a biological family member such as an aunt or grandparent.

·         If no biological family member is willing or able to adopt, the next preference is for the child to be adopted by the foster parents or by someone else involved in the child’s life (such as a teacher or coach). This is to maintain continuity in the child’s life.

·         If neither above options are available, the child may be adopted by someone who is a stranger to the child.

·         Permanent transfer of guardianship

·         If none of these options are viable the plan for the minor may enter OPPLA (Other Planned Permanent Living Arrangement). This option allows the child to stay in custody of the state and the child can stay placed in a foster home, with a relative or an Independent Living Centre or long term care facility (for children with development disabilities, physical disabilities or mental disabilities).

Adjusted to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphanage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoption

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fostercare

The Disabled – Questions

Answer the following questions.

What are types of handicaps?

What are reasons for being handicapped?

What types of therapies do you know?

How can they help the handicapped?

What type of impairment is blindness?

What are special aids for the blind?

What are they used for?

Who helps the blind?

What was life of the handicapped like in the past?

Has their situation improved?

What are typical problems of handicapped people?

What are problems of the blind, deaf, physically disabled?

What are types of learning handicaps?

What are learning aids used by the handicapped children?

What is IQ?

What are its levels?

What are examples of mental handicaps?

What are examples of physical handicaps?

What is the origin of these handicaps?

What types of therapies and activities are offered to the autistic clients of Apla?

Progress Made But More Needs to Be Done, Say Handicapped Rights Advocates - Text 5

Progress Made But More Needs to Be Done, Say Handicapped Rights Advocates

A December 3 is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Here in the Czech Republic, things have changed a lot since the communist era, when an independent lifestyle was virtually impossible for the handicapped. However, advocates say there is still a lot of work to be done.

B Zdeněk Škaroupka is the director of Liga vozíčkářů, the Czech association of wheelchair users. It was established in 1990, soon after the fall of communism, to address the problems of people with disabilities. Mr. Škaroupka describes what conditions handicapped people were living under the previous system. “The situation was that most disabled people lived in institutions. Children and teenagers were living in social services housing for disabled youths. The situation was intolerable to me, because the children had very few opportunities to freely move on their own, for example to go into town; they were sort of locked up in their accommodation, and their life was, well, the way life was in those institutions at the time.”

C One huge difference between then and now is definitely the accessibility of public spaces. Eva Kučerová, a Prague resident who relies on a wheelchair to get around, says the situation has gotten a lot better in the past 20 years. “As far as my personal experience goes, the changes have been radical. When I was young, for example, right after my accident, when I was studying, there were no ramps for wheelchairs in the city’s public transportation system. So as a disabled person, you were always depending on your family and your own resources.”

D Advocates say despite some advances, much more needs to be done to help the country’s handicapped. Zdeněk Škaroupka says: “None of the areas that are problematic for disabled people have been addressed in a systematic, clear and definite way. Take wheelchair ramps for example: we have a construction law that states what a wheelchair accessible place should look like. But the problem is that there are no effective sanctions or fines in case the construction firm doesn’t adhere to the law.”

E Mr. Škaroupka added that even though the International Day for Persons with Disabilities does offer a great opportunity to organize events and conferences, not enough is done in the Czech Republic to celebrate it. “It would be good if we could take advantage of the day to spread the news that there are problems that disabled people have to face and that plenty of people that surround us have to deal with those problems. For instance, they could not take a parking spot that is designated to be used by disabled people only.”

construction law – stavební zákon

designated – určený

to adhere – držet se

1) Read the article and match each of the headings to a paragraph.

1 The situation of people with disabilities in the past

2 Difference between then and now

3 Škaroupka thinks we should do more for the handicapped

4 A lot has to be done to help the handicapped

5 Things have changed a lot in the Czech Republic

2) Read the article and answer the questions.

1 What is the article about?

2 Who is Zdeněk Škaroupka? What are his opinions?

3 Who is Eva Kučerová? What are her opinions?

4 What does Zdeněk Škaroupka say about wheelchair ramps?

5 How could the International Day for Persons with Disabilities help?

3) Explain the following words.

1 independent lifestyle

2 housing for disabled youths

3 intolerable

4 accessibility of public spaces

5 wheelchair ramp

4) Answer the following questions.

What was life of the handicapped like in the past? Has their situation improved? What are typical problems of handicapped people? What are problems of the blind, deaf, physically disabled?

Adjusted to:

http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/progress-made-but-more-needs-to-be-done-say-handicapped-rights-advocates

Jedlička Institute and Schools (JÚŠ) for Physically Disabled Young People in Prague - Text 4

Jedlička Institute and Schools (JÚŠ) for Physically Disabled Young People in Prague

A Jedlička Institute and Schools is a non-profit organisation operated by Prague City Council. It is a specialist educational establishment for children and young people primarily with a physical disability.

B It was founded in 1913 and has been based in central Prague at Vyšehrad since that time. During the past 90 years it has undergone many changes but with a continuing emphasis on education and training for further application in employment even for those young people whose disability is severe. Since 1991 it has been operated by Prague City Council which provides financial support. The Jedlička Foundation raises funds to cover costs for specific individual needs of physically disabled students. It has also provided significant support for JÚŠ building improvements over the past 10 years.

C JÚŠ currently serves to 180 students for whom a great amount of services are provided. 90 students are accommodated during the week and go home for weekends and holidays. In the late 1990s, thanks to the UK Crown Foundation, we made contact with Treloar College in Alton, Hampshire. Several projects were undertaken that involved the sharing of experiences between staff and exchange visits for students. Work methods and student needs in both places are very similar. We can offer training opportunities for students from the UK together with full board onsite.

D Our schools provide elementary and middle-school education, both mainstream and specialist, for children and young people primarily with physical disabilities. The students are provided with therapeutic rehabilitation – physiotherapy, occupational therapy (ergotherapy), hydrotherapy, speech therapy. Moreover, computer assistance, social skills for the workplace, a flat in which they can develop independent domestic skills, a transition programme and employment support are made accessible for all of the students. Children with physical disabilities in mainstream schools are offered mobility consultancy services or assistance with the selection of schools, they can exploit diagnostics, psychological, and therapy short-term stays.

E There are extracurricular activities as accommodation in modern dormitories for children and young people available. The students can create and support social contacts in hobby groups, sports clubs, and an alumni club. They can take part in weekend stays, summer holiday camps, and cooperate with schools overseas.

alumni – absolventský

onsite – na místě

1) Read the article and match each of the headings to a paragraph.

1 Extracurricular activities

2 History and Jedlička Foundation

3 Therapies and skills provided to students

4 Contacts with abroad

5 Introduction

2) Read the article and answer the questions.

1 What is the article about?

2 What is Jedlička Institute and Schools?

3 Who does it cooperate with?

4 What are the students offered in JÚŠ?

5 Where can they meet friends and set up new contacts?

3) Explain the following words.

1 disability

2 physically disabled

3 foundation

4 ergotherapy

5 domestic skills

4) Answer the following questions.

What are types of handicaps? What are reasons for being handicapped? What types of therapies do you know? How can they help the handicapped?

Adjusted to:

http://www.jus.cz/english

Young Czech Artist Helps Dyslexic Children - Text 3

Young Czech Artist Helps Dyslexic Children

A Around five percent of Czech school-goers are diagnosed with dyslexia. Although it has been proven that there is no direct link between dyslexia and IQ dyslexic children are often labelled slow and problematic, hampering them from making full use of their potential. A new learning aid aims to change that.

B Children who are in any way different generally suffer for it in the classroom. It took years for the Czech education system to accept left-handers for what they were and not force them to write with their right hand. Now, teachers are being made to recognize that a dyslexic child can be as intelligent – or more intelligent – than a child without learning disabilities. Last week a young Czech artist – herself a dyslexia sufferer – presented the public with an audio-visual primer she produced in cooperation with experts from Charles University.

C Alena Kupčíková explains what the new learning technique is based on. “Children suffering from dyslexia tend to use the right hemisphere of the brain more than the left which influences their perception of things. They tend to think in pictures, which makes it hard for them to work with letters and written words. So our learning aid is based on using pictures to help them recognize letters in what appears to be a foreign and confusing environment. But it is possible that our primer will help all children learn to read because our first perception of new things tends to be visual.”

D Alena Kupčíková spent six years working with pre-school children and first graders in order to get as much information as possible for the primer. In the learning process children are encouraged to play with the shapes of letters and look for them in a given environment. You have pictures in motion on screen which children have to spot or move elsewhere. The combination of work with colour, sound, shape and movement has produced excellent results and dyslexia experts in other countries have shown interest in the idea.

E “The first to contact were experts from Slovakia – who want a Slovak version of what we are offering Czech children, and because my work is known abroad other countries have expressed interest as well. We are cooperating with education specialists in Great Britain, Canada, France and Germany to produce different language versions. It is a lot of work but now that the Czech version is done we hope to move on and have the English and German versions ready by the end of the year.”

hampering – brzdící

perception – vnímání

primer – slabikář

to tend – mít sklon

1) Read the article and match each of the headings to a paragraph.

1 A new learning aid

2 International interest

3 Work with colour, sound, shape and movement

4 Teachers have to find out dyslexic children can be intelligent

5 Alena Kupčíková explains the principle of the new learning technique

2) Read the article and answer the questions.

1 What is the article about?

2 Who is Alena Kupčíková?

3 What and who did she cooperate in her primer with?

4 What are problems of Czech teachers in connection with the disabled students?

5 What do the foreign experts say about the primer?

3) Explain the following words.

1 dyslexia

2 learning aid

3 different

4 left-hander

5 pre-school children

4) Answer the following questions.

What are types of learning handicaps? What are learning aids used by the handicapped children? What is IQ? What are its levels?

Adjusted to:

http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/young-czech-artist-helps-dyslexic-children