The two-year programme included comprehensive training for 148 people who work with children with developmental difficulties and the procurement of equipment for technology-assisted communication for nine medical institutions, 12 associations and 11 educational institutional and social care centres.
As part of the programme, 6,076 children with developmental difficulties from all over the country were given the opportunity to use various forms of technology-assisted communication, UNICEF says.
"We often forget that communication is a fundamental human right, and children who develop normally acquire a language and speech from an early age by communicating with their environment. In the case of children who for various reasons do not speak or do not understand their native language sufficiently, we must enable them to convey to us their wishes and comments or answer our questions," said Jasmina Ivsac Pavlisa of Zagreb's Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, UNICEF's programme partner.
In 32 institutions across Croatia experts now have the skills and equipment to help children, who otherwise would not be able to do so, to express their thoughts, needs and feelings, UNICEF said.