Inclusive Classrooms: Educating Students with ASD and ADHD

Name: Inclusive Classrooms: Educating Students with ASD and ADHD
Price: 400 EUR

Why this is Erasmus+ eligible

Structured, multi-day programme (5 days) with a pre-defined schedule and learning outcomes — not a passive lecture format.

Built around interaction: participants engage directly with the trainer and with peers from other countries throughout the course.

Transnational by design — open to participants travelling from outside the host country, a core requirement of Erasmus+ mobility funding.

Aligned with the Erasmus+ horizontal priority: Inclusion & Diversity.

Inclusion and diversity is the first priority listed in the Erasmus+ Programme Guide, which describes disability as covering “physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder someone’s full and effective participation in society on the same footing as others” (Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2026, Part A – Priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme, p. 7). This week takes the barrier, not the diagnosis, as the thing to work on: a classroom that carries its instruction in speech alone can leave autistic and ADHD learners without the information they need. Participants leave with structured-teaching material for the mainstream class they already teach — visual schedules, individual work systems, room zoning, and an individual support plan adapted around an invented composite student profile.

Source: Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2026, Key Action 1 — School Education Mobility.

Overview

In the mid-1960s, at a time when autism was widely blamed on parenting, Eric Schopler and colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill began working with parents as co-therapists. Their work became Division TEACCH, whose central idea is still used in classrooms today: the environment can carry part of the instruction, so that a student does not depend on spoken direction alone. TEACCH was built for autism; this week adds an ADHD track that uses similar logic, and treats every strategy as a classroom support to try and observe, not as a proven treatment.

The course is for mainstream teachers, not clinicians. Nobody is asked to diagnose anyone, and no real student’s information is needed: you work from three invented composite profiles and finish with an individual support plan for one of them.

Monday — you learn where TEACCH comes from, describe the barriers a classroom can create, and meet three composite student profiles.
Tuesday — you plan a zoned room and build a visual schedule with a change card.
Wednesday — you design a work system and a transition routine, and see how the same structure works on a screen.
Thursday — you build ADHD-friendly supports for time and attention, and practise clear instructions.
Friday — you complete an individual support plan and present it, including what you can do alone, with a colleague, and what to ask your school for.

By Friday you have a room plan, a visual schedule, a work system, an attention-support routine and a support plan for one composite student, ready to try in your own class. It is a classroom-management repertoire that does not ask a teacher to become a specialist overnight.

Description

TEACCH (Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication-handicapped CHildren, the program’s original name) grew out of Eric Schopler’s research at UNC Chapel Hill from 1964 and became a North Carolina state program in 1972. It is a model for autism, and its structured teaching combines physical structure, visual schedules, work systems and visual structure of tasks. The week teaches the parts a mainstream teacher can use in an ordinary classroom, in a small and practical form.

The week is honest about evidence. The research on TEACCH outcomes is mixed, with clearer gains in some specific skills than in others, and there is no TEACCH-specific evidence for ADHD. The ADHD track therefore borrows the logic — what is invisible, such as time and the next step, is made visible — and treats every strategy as something to try for two weeks and observe, not as a treatment. This course is not delivered by, or affiliated with, the UNC TEACCH Autism Program and does not lead to TEACCH certification.

The language of the week is about barriers rather than diagnoses. A classroom that carries its instruction in speech alone can leave autistic students and students with ADHD without the information they need, and the task is to change the classroom, not the student. Composite profiles keep the work concrete without any real child being discussed, and nothing in the room asks a teacher to diagnose or to predict what a student will do. The plan you write at the end is a description of what you will try and what you will observe.

Structure works on paper first. Room plans, schedules and work-system cards are made by hand, and on Wednesday you see how the same schedule and the same “finished” signal can be kept visible on a tablet or in slides, with free tools or none. Deeper work with assistive technology is covered in Digital Tools for Students with Special Needs, a general teaching repertoire for pupils with special educational needs in Every Child is Special, and the inclusive teacher’s profile in Inclusive Education and Special Needs; this course starts from the classroom itself.

Some of the plan you can do alone in your own room, some needs your SEN coordinator or a colleague, and some — a quiet space, time, a visual timer — you have to ask your school for; the plan template has a place for each.

Methodology

Try It Yourself First

Participants experience the key strategies as a student first — following verbal-only instructions, then visual ones — before they design it.

Composite Profiles, No Real Cases

Work is built on three invented composite student profiles, so plans are concrete and no real child, name or diagnosis is discussed.

One Structure at a Time

The week adds the key structures — the room, the schedule, the work system, attention support — one after another to the same individual support plan.

What you'll take home

Describe the barriers a classroom can create for autistic students and students with ADHD, without diagnosing.

Plan a zoned classroom layout and a visual schedule with a change routine for a composite student profile.

Build an individual work system and a transition routine, and keep the same structure visible on a screen where one is used.

Adapt a task for a student with ADHD using time, step and movement supports, and give short, clear instructions.

Draft an individual support plan (IEP or your system's equivalent) for a composite profile, separating what you can do alone, with a colleague, and ask your school for.

Daily programme

Icebreaker: "Awareness Circle" — each participant names one thing in their classroom that assumes a student will simply know what to do next, without naming any student
Division TEACCH's origins at UNC Chapel Hill (mid-1960s research, state program in 1972): working with parents as co-therapists, and what the evidence does and does not show
Autism and ADHD in classroom terms: predictability, language processing, attention and working memory, and why we describe barriers rather than diagnoses
Three invented composite student profiles: naming the barriers each one meets

Warm-up: "Verbal Only, Then Visual" — the same task given once in spoken instructions only and once with a card, and a discussion of what changed
Physical structure: a plan of your own classroom with an instruction zone, an independent-work zone and a transition space
Visual schedules: building a five-step morning or lesson schedule with a change card for one profile, adjusting the profile’s age to your own class
Trying your schedule on a partner and improving it

Individual work systems: four questions a student asks silently — what do I do, how much, how do I know I am finished, what happens next
Transition routines: how to move a class or one student from one activity to the next with a warning
Keeping the same structure visible on a tablet or in slides, with free tools or none: the schedule, the finished signal, and warning before change
Building a work system and a transition routine for one task

Warm-up: "Watch the Clock" — do the same short task once with no time signal and once with a visual timer and step cards, then compare
Making time and steps visible for students with ADHD: visual timers, chunked steps, step cards, movement breaks and seating
Effective communication with autistic students and students with ADHD: short instructions, visual and verbal together, and checking understanding
Adapting the same task for the ADHD profile and for the profile with both

Completing an individual support plan (IEP or your system's equivalent) for one composite profile, using the week's structures
Presenting the plan in small groups with peer feedback: what you will try and what you will observe over two weeks
What you can do alone, what you can do with a colleague or SEN coordinator, and what you will ask your school for
Reflection and self-assessment
Course evaluation
Certification ceremony

Please note: sessions run from 09:30 to 15:00, Monday to Friday, with a break for lunch. Timings can shift a little to suit the venue and the group. If you'd like a specific topic covered, let us know when you apply — the confirmed day-by-day schedule is sent to registered participants ahead of the course.

Certificate: we issue the Certificate of Attendance to everyone who's present for at least 80% of the course — tracked with the daily sign-in sheet (see Certificate & assessment).

Equipment: a few of our courses ask participants to bring a laptop — check the day-by-day programme above, or ask us if you're not sure.

Need a formal invoice or proforma for your school's records? Ask us — we issue official invoices with the participant's name and course details.

Materials & tools

Worked on during the week: three composite student profiles, a classroom room-plan sheet, a visual-schedule template with a change card, a work-system card and an individual support plan template, together with the plans that participants produce during the course. A visual timer or slides can be used where a screen is available; every task also works on paper.

Certificate & assessment

This is a Certificate of Attendance, not an exam-based qualification — recognition comes from completing the structured programme, not from passing a test. The real, lasting value is in the competencies listed above under What you'll take home.

Erasmus Mobility Academy

Certificate of Attendance

Inclusive Classrooms: Educating Students with ASD and ADHD · 5 days · 25 hrs

+ Europass Mobility document

Type your name above — clearly marked "SAMPLE" in the PDF, not an official document.

The real certificate is signed by your trainer and EMA's authorised signatory. Your own signature isn't on this document — it's captured separately, on the Europass Mobility document.

Need to verify a real certificate? Check it online using the serial number and participant's full name, or contact us directly — [email protected], OID E10304561.

Attendance

Tracked using a sign-in sheet with one signature per participant per day (paper or digital). This record is used to issue your Certificate of Attendance and Europass Mobility document. View sign-in sheet (PDF)

Output

Every participant leaves with a completed Dissemination & School Impact Plan — a step-by-step template for applying the course back at your school (see below).

Feedback

An end-of-course evaluation form is sent to every participant after the course ends — a chance to reflect on what you've learned and how you'll apply it, and it helps us keep improving the course for future participants.

Your paperwork

Keep your travel tickets, boarding passes and (if you used green travel) any related receipts — your school or National Agency may ask for these for their own Erasmus+ reporting.

Practical information

Registration & documents

Not sure how registering works or what paperwork is involved? See our full Registration & Documents guide — from applying to your Certificate of Attendance, in one place.

Invitation letter

Need a formal invitation letter for your school or embassy? Request one — we send it within 2 business days. See a sample (PDF).

Learning Agreement

Prepared by our staff and sent to you and your school once your registration form is submitted — see what it looks like. See a sample (PDF).

Billing & invoicing

We issue official invoices/proformas with the participant's name and course details — ask us. Payment is due in full by bank transfer before the course start date. See a sample (PDF).

Airport transfer

Guidance on getting from the nearest airport to the venue is included in your welcome information.

Accommodation

We can recommend partner hotels close to the venue in the host city — ask us when you apply.

For your school / proposal

School impact

After completing this course, the participating staff member can transfer outcomes directly to their school: a short briefing for colleagues sharing the key takeaways, applying relevant tools or strategies from the programme in their own role, and inclusion of the course materials in the school's professional development resources — turning one person's mobility into a wider institutional gain that supports the school's European Development Plan. Use the Dissemination & School Impact Plan below to fill in your own — it saves as you go and can generate a one-page summary for your coordinator too.

Prefer a blank, course-independent version of this template? Get it here →

After the course

Participants will receive their certificates (Certificate of Attendance + Europass).

Participants will complete a general course evaluation and event survey.

Participants will receive course materials, videos, photos, and PDF documents in both digital and print formats.

Follow-up support: an email group is created for idea exchange, self-evaluation materials are provided, and participants receive a follow-up check-in after 3 months to discuss progress on applying inclusive strategies for autistic students and students with ADHD in their schools.

Frequently asked

This course is an eligible training activity under Erasmus+ Key Action 1 (School Education Mobility) — the course fee, travel and subsistence fall within the eligible cost categories. Whether it is covered depends on your own project's approved grant agreement and your National Agency's rules; we provide all the invoices, attendance records and certificates your National Agency requires for reporting.

B1 is enough — you do not need to be fluent. Trainers speak slowly and plainly, every session is built around doing something rather than sitting and listening, and groups are mixed by nationality so people help each other out. A rough test: if you could follow a staff meeting held in English and ask a question in it, you will be fine here.

Absolutely — group bookings of 3+ from one school receive priority placement, and we can schedule a dedicated session for groups of 12 or more.

Our courses run on request at our centres in Antalya, İstanbul, İzmir, Mersin, Budapest, Bremen and Rome. Tell us your preferred city and dates and we will arrange a session.

Tuition, all course materials, your Certificate of Attendance, the co-signed Europass Mobility document and a half-day guided tour of the host city with a local guide. Flights, accommodation and travel insurance are booked separately — we send a vetted hotel list.

You can move to any later session free of charge. Cancellations made 30+ days before the start date receive a full refund; a reduced refund applies closer to the date — see our full Cancellation & Refund Policy for the exact schedule.

Inclusion and diversity is the first priority listed in the Erasmus+ Programme Guide, which describes disability as covering “physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder someone’s full and effective participation in society on the same footing as others” (Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2026, Part A – Priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme, p. 7). This week takes the barrier, not the diagnosis, as the thing to work on: a classroom that carries its instruction in speech alone can leave autistic and ADHD learners without the information they need. Participants leave with structured-teaching material for the mainstream class they already teach — visual schedules, individual work systems, room zoning, and an individual support plan adapted around an invented composite student profile. Frame it in your own project's terms — your National Agency's current call will confirm exactly how it applies.

No. The course is built for mainstream classroom teachers, not clinicians or SEN specialists — the classroom ideas from structured teaching are taught from the ground up, with no prior qualification assumed.

No to both. The course is not delivered by or affiliated with the UNC TEACCH Autism Program and does not lead to TEACCH certification; it teaches classroom ideas inspired by structured teaching. Nobody is asked to diagnose or to bring information about a real student: the week works from invented composite profiles, and the aim is to change the classroom, not to label a child.