Key educational factors in the education of students with a medical condition

Significant medical conditions can negatively impact several aspects of child development, from comprising academic achievement to reducing quality of life and self-esteem. In such situation, the importance of attending school and maintaining good peer relationships becomes paramount. The key educational factors that can help children continue their education despite the burdens associated with their illness were discussed and analysed by a pool of experts for an EU funded project called Leho (Learning at home and in the Hospital). In this context, relationships, making sense and constructing knowledge , assuming roles in front of others, metacognition, individualities and inter-institutional communication emerged as the 6 Key Educational Factors (KEF) that are crucial for the education of this vulnerable population. The KEF can be used both at an institutional and individual level. At an institutional level , they can inform school and hospital polices to better answer the developmental and educational needs of children. They may also be used as a guide for the planning of school activities and projects and later as indicators for school activity assessment. At an individual level , a teacher could use these KEF to assess the participation and integration of a student with a medical condition with his own school and later to make personalized plans for the student's involvement in educational activities. At a later stage, the KEF can also be used as a tool to evaluate the student's progress that has occurred at the end of a program. In this presentation, several implications of the KEFs for home and hospital education are discussed, with a particular focus on practices examples that meet the relational and communicational needs of these children. Specific recommendations for the practice, policy, and research regarding these KEF within this unique educational context are presented.