Author: Mgr. Kateřina Janků, Ph.D.

On April 17 - 21, 2023, together with special education students, the academics of our faculty took part in professional training under the auspices of the Erasmus+ EU program and the "Support of the Snoezelen concept and its integration into university education" project in Poland's second largest city, Krakow. Apart from the hosts themselves from Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego im. Bronisława Czecha w Krakowie, pedagogues and students from the Spanish university Universitat de Lleida also took part in the training.

During the five-day professional programme, five interesting lectures were attended, always related to the Snoezelen concept in a certain way. During these lectures, we had the opportunity to look into very interesting fields such as music therapy, occupational therapy or physiotherapy. There was also the opportunity to try out the basics of calligraphy, or the art of cursive writing, which were taught by the renowned artist Professor Pokutycki.

The visit contained also a rich cultural and educational program, which was taken care of by dr. Katarzyna Filar-Mierzwa, who together with her students performed the basics of artistic dance to the participants. The lecture of dr. Metel was attended as well, who with her interpretation drew attention to a serious problem of today's time, which is incorrect body posture when performing normal daily activities, such as eating or, nowadays, even working on a mobile phone. The participants took part in three visits to specialized day and institutional facilities for people with dementia and for people with mental and physical disabilities. The visits enabled to look under the hood of the normal operation of these homes and tour the Snoezelen multi-sensory room. The cultural program was organized under the leadership of dr. Smrokowska-Reichmann, with whom the visit of the nearby town of Wieliczka took place, which is home to one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, one of the oldest salt mines in Europe. We consider this entire stay as part of our project to be very interesting and beneficial.