BACKGROUNDDue to the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, schools in Europe opted to switch to online remote courses with a view to keeping their students and teaching staff safe during the pandemic emergency.The consequences have been tragic for students and kids with special needs.Indeed, educational institutions were not prepared for supporting them at distance.As a consequence, parents of children with special needs found themselves in a new burdensome situation, becoming responsible for continuing their children's education at home.PROJECT OBJECTIVESThe purpose of the DiLASD project is to provide social educators and social workers with competence in assisting students and kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their families remotely.ASD encompasses a group of lifelong disabilities that affect people’s ability to communicate and understand social cues. An individual with ASD has difficulties in recognizing body language, making eye contact, and understanding other people’s emotions.The main objective of the project is the active learning of individuals with ASD, according to their personals abilities, through the use of digital technology. Remote teaching-learning and online assistance will decrease their marginalization; improving their self-independence and well-being in life.NEEDSThe DiLASD project is motivated by the analysis that partners conducted during the closure of educational institutions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the main needs that emerged from their analysis has been the necessity to professionalize the interventions of social educators and social workers in designing and running educational activities for students and kids with ASD remotely.TARGET GROUPSThe primary target groups are:•Social educators and social workers (and social volunteers).•Students and kids with ASD.The other target groups are:•Families of students and kids with ASD. •Social Services.•Organizations/institutions engaged in Special Education NeedsPARTNERSThe DiLASD project involves five partners from five European countries (Poland, Italy, Greece, Latvia, Cyprus) that have a long experience in the ASD scope and experimented with ERT in their countries during the schools’ closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They decided to put together their theoretical and practical experience to realize a training package to support students and kids with ASD remotely. PROJECT ACTIVITIES The main project activities include:•An educational pack for social educators/social workers to train them to support remotely students and kids with ASD as well as their parents.•Laboratories in which students and kids with ASD will experiment with remote learning, the use of software applications, and programmable toy robots (PTRs).•A virtual community where social educators, social workers, and parents can find educational materials as well as collect and share their experiences.•An educational multimedia book on online social communication and autism.The training course will be held in a virtual classroom. Social educators and social workers will be provided with digital skills and competence to implement remote teaching-learning activities for students and kids with ASD as well as assist them at distance.LEARNING STRATEGYThe DiLASD project will adopt an advanced learning strategy:•The training course will be based on an online adaptable learning approach and the use of structured learning units to create personalized learning paths in an online environment.•Online parent-training to train parents of students and kids with ASD to support the remote teaching-learning of their children.•Online laboratories involving students and kids with ASD individually and in groups.POTENTIAL LONG TERM BENEFITSIn Europe, the incidence of diagnosed ASD in young people appears to be in a range of 6 to 20 per 1000. In recent decades the number of people diagnosed with ASD has increased significantly.The main potential benefits of the DiLASD project are:• promoting practices of remote teaching-learning and remote assistance for students and kids with ASD;• Improving the competence of social educators/social workers/social volunteers;• Integrating topical teaching-learning methodologies such as online participatory learning, web social learning, online peer learning, and web-based self-learning practices;• Encouraging educational institutions to use online technology in Special Education Needs.finally, the potential longer-term benefits are also successful professional, independent life of future adults with ASD; their relative safety on the labor market and involvement in work mainly in the service sector; the revival of forgotten jobs to the provision of which adults with ASD may strongly contribute.