Final Day of the OGEM Summer School

The final day of the OGEM Summer School, organized as part of the “Rhythm of Nature and Sensory Exploration Project,” concluded with activities bringing together movement, cognitive skills, creativity, and social participation.

The first part of the day began with sports activities and continued with mathematics activities. During one of these activities, the children were asked to select cards from a box, each displaying a number and a color. They were then expected to choose beads that matched the number and color indicated on the card. The activity addressed concepts and skills including number and quantity, color discrimination, visual matching, following instructions, attention, and making choices. The children then used the beads they had selected to design their own bracelets, providing opportunities to use fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, bilateral coordination, in-hand manipulation, object manipulation, and praxis skills.

In the afternoon, the children participated in a wood painting activity together with their mothers and the volunteer university students who had accompanied them throughout the week. This collaborative activity provided opportunities to use fine motor, visual-motor, hand-eye coordination, and praxis skills, while also encouraging collaborative creation, social interaction, and participation in a shared activity. Carrying out the activity together with family members and volunteer students also enabled the children to maintain the social-emotional bonds they had gormed throughout the week and strengthen their experiences of social participation.

Following the day’s activities, the closing program of the “Rhythm of Nature and Sensory Exploration Project” was held. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Şükrü Özdemir, Dean of the Faculty of Education; Prof. Dr. Emrah Görgülü, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Education; and Prof. Dr. Mustafa Zahit Serarslan, Dean of the Faculty of Sports Sciences, also attended the closing program, which brought together the children, their families, the project team, and volunteer students following a week of activities.

Through the activities conducted throughout the week, together with educational and experience-sharing sessions for families, the program aimed not only to support the children’s daily living skills but also to raise families’ awareness of ways to support their children’s participation and independence. The final day thus concluded with activities integrating fine motor and visual-motor skills, praxis, cognitive skills, social participation, and family involvement.

The “Rhythm of Nature and Sensory Exploration Project” came to an end after a week that transformed the university campus into a natural environment for learning, interaction, and shared experiences for children with special needs and their families.