Building 4 Belonging

Social inclusion at school; some youth feel a higher need than others. But fundamentally, all youth should feel welcomed and valued in their school. Especially during breaks, before or after classes, it’s important to be able to connect with peers. For some youth, these contacts come less easily, e.g. those with less access to their social environment, such as autistic or deaf youth. In fact, some might even become reluctant to go to school if they miss a sense of belonging and feeling that the school is also their school. In this project we focus on playgrounds, schoolyards, canteens and hallways. The places where youth meet and socialize.

Funded by NWO LDE Centre for BOLD Cities eScience center and Leiden-Delft-Erasmus (LDE) our projects are multidisciplinary in nature and promote innovative changes to the urban environment such as school infrastructure, to facilitate modes for youth with special needs to interact with peers, and to increase awareness of diversity and inclusion. To this end, this project is a collaboration between psychology, psychiatry, architecture, computer science, and governance. See different disciplines outlined below.

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Smart Monitoring

Modern sensing technology is developed, complementary on observations and questionnaires, to measure social participation, and to evaluate interventions. These sensors can be clipped on a child’s coat or shirt. Read more about the sensors on this link.

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Online kick off Building4Belonging

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Elijah Delsink on Autism Friendly Architecture ( Building4Belonging : Kick-off meeting)

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Dr. Magda Mostafa on Autism Friendly Architecture (Building4Belonging: Kick-off meeting)

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In the media

Read this newsitem on the study in which we tested an intervention at the playground, showing "the rich get richer". Based on these outcomes we are now developing and testing alternative intervention that will enhance social cohesion also for the more vulnerable children.

Key publications

• Li, B., Heyne, D., Scheeren, A., Blijd-Hoogewys, E., & Rieffe, C. (2024). School participation of autistic youths: The influence of youth, family and school factors. Autism, 28(9), 2295-2310. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613231225490
• Tsou,Y., Kovács, L.V., Louloumari, A., Stockmann, L., Blijd-Hoogewys, E. M. A., Koutamanis, A., & Rieffe, C. (2024). School-based interventions for increasing autistic pupils’ social inclusion in mainstream schools: A systematic review. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-024-00429-2
• Tsou, Y., Nasri, M., Li, B., Blijd-Hoogewys, E. M. A., Baratchi, M., Koutamanis, A., & Rieffe, C. (2024). Social connectedness and loneliness in school for autistic and allistic children. Autism, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241259932
• Eichengreen, A., Tsou Y.-T., Nasri, M., van Klaveren, L.M., Li, B., Koutamanis, A., Baratchi, M., Blijd-Hoogewys, E., Kok, J., & Rieffe, C. (2023). Social connectedness at the playground before and after COVID-19 school closure. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. doi: 10.1016/j.appdev.2023.101562. Epub 2023 Jun 28. PMID: 37396499; PMCID: PMC10305783.

• Eichengreen, A., Van Rooijen, M., Van Klaveren, L.M., Nasri, M., Tsou, Y.T., Koutamanis, A.,Baratchi, M., & Rieffe, C. (2024). The impact of loose‐parts‐play on schoolyard social participation of children with and without disabilities: A case study. Child: care, health and development, 50(1), e13144. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.1314
• Rieffe, C.,& Koutamanis, A. (2023). Een autisme-vriendelijke school; Architectuur als eerste stap. Wetenschappelijk Tijdschrift Autisme, 22(4), 29-39.

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People involved

Psychology - Funmi Bamidele, Marieke Bos, Charlotte Hu, Kexin Liu, Carolien Rieffe, Jiayin Zhao (University of Twente / Leiden University)

Education - Yung-Ting Tsou (National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan), Ed Baines (Institute of Education, UCL, London, UK)

Computer Science - Mitra Baratchi (Leiden University), Dennis Reidsma, Robby van Delden (University of Twente)

Architecture - Mohsen Mohammadi (Leiden University), Alexander Koutamanis (TU Delft), Magda Mostafa (American University in Cairo, Egypt)

Child Psychiatry - Robert Vermeiren (LUMC-Curium), Els Blijd-Hoogewys (INTER-PSY), Joanneke vanderNagel (University of Twente)

Governance - Sarah Giest (Governance, Leiden University), Ellen Starke (School Alliances Amsterdam), Marije Brouwer (School Alliances Twente)

Stakeholders organizations - LBVSO, NVA (Dutch National Autism Organization), AWA (Academic Workplace Autism).