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Luxembourg

Grand Duchess Maria Teresa opens the Center for the Development of Apprenticeships “Grand Duchess Maria Teresa”

On Monday, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa was in Strassen to open the new Center for the Development of Apprenticeships “Grand Duchess Maria Teresa”.

The CDA is one of nine structures provided by the Differentiated Education law dating from July 20th following the 2016 International Forum on Learning Disabilities organized on Grand Duchess Maria Teresa’s initiative. The initiative is in continuity with the Grand Duchess’ commitment to raise awareness about children with learning disabilities. The Forum was the first time the need for such structures was publicly stated in Luxembourg. Around 5% of Luxembourgish pupils are affected by learning or concentration difficulties and there wasn’t any public structure adapted for them.

CDA’s areas of expertise include reading, writing and numeracy disorders, as well as related disorders such as attention deficit disorder (with or without hyperactivity), dyspraxia, dysphasia,

The CDA is equipped with 16 therapy areas, two spaces for psychomotricity, three rooms dedicated to training and conferences. The CDA team is made up of 28 employees, including psychologists, pedagogues, psychometricians, speech therapists and teachers.

The main purpose of this centre is to enable the child to be included in the standard school system. The first phase consists of creating a link between the young people and the supervising staff before being able to establish a diagnosis. After the diagnosis is made, the child can benefit from an education adapted to their needs and thus be more confident in a standard classroom: “We provide a specific diagnosis and personalized ambulatory and punctual supervision. The highest priority is given to inclusion. We do not offer schooling in CDA classes. On the other hand, a school project adapted to the needs of the child or young person is established and implemented in collaboration with the classroom teacher and the pedagogical team, as well as the teacher specialized in the schooling of students with special educational needs ( I-EBS). Where appropriate, we use one or more other skill centres to provide appropriate coaching.”

Grand Duchess Maria Teresa has always been very committed to raising awareness about learning disabilities as one of her own children suffers from dyslexia. At the forum in 2016, the Grand Duchess said she was immensely proud of Prince Louis’ courage in face of dyslexia.