CREDA

In this post I wanted to talk about CREDA (Centres de Recursos per a Deficients Auditius), an educational service offered in Catalonia.

CREDA’s are support services for schools. They help them adapt to the special needs of students with severe hearing, language and communication difficulties that condition their personal and social development. They basically intervene in 3 major areas: students and families; centers and teachers; educational area. Currently in Catalonia there are 10.

Its main objectives are:

• Provide specific speech therapy care to students who need it

• Advise and guide their families

• Provide support and advice to educational centers and teachers, and also provide them with materials, resources and specialized information in order to be able to adapt teaching to the special needs of some students.

• Make the assessment and monitoring of the child’s audiological, communicative and linguistic evolutionary process.

To achieve their goals, they have different professionals such as speech therapists; psych pedagogues specialized in hearing, language and communication; and specialized audio prosthetists.

They are addressed to:

• Children and young people with deafness (0-18 years) and their families

• Students with severe language and/or communication disorders (3-12 years)

• Centers and teachers of students with hearing, language and/or communication difficulties

• Specialized teachers (MALL) in the educational area of students with severe hearing and/ or language difficulties.

During a project I made in high school, I had the opportunity to talk about CREDA with parents of deaf children and schools that work with them, and both of them had good impressions of CREDA. The families told me that CREDA is a good starting point and a great help for them, as they allow them to do audiometry without the need to go to Barcelona every time. Moreover, they put at their service a speech therapist who guides and accompanies them a lot in different situations. In relation to the schools, with the ones I was able to speak, they thanked the material and speech therapists that CREDA offers them.

Before doing this project, I had never heard of CREDA and I think they do an important job with all the persons around children with deafness and also for the children itself. I also believe that it is a place where more psychologists could work, in order to be able to emotionally accompany and support the children and their families.

What do you think about that? Had you heard about CREDA before or do you know any?

Bibliography:

Generalitat de Catalunya. CREDA. [Consulta: 03 de desembre de 2020]. Serveis educatius. SEE. Centres de recursos per a deficients auditius (CREDA). XTEC - Xarxa Telemàtica Educativa de Catalunya (gencat.cat)

Generalitat de Catalunya. Serveis educatius CREDA Catalunya Central. [Consulta: 03 de desembre de 2020]. Què és | CREDA Catalunya Central (xtec.cat)

Judit Capell