Safety and protection. Children are vulnerable in a world which they have limited knowledge of. They know neither its system, nor its rules. All the more so in the case of special needs children, who find it harder to understand the signs of the world that encompasses them. Attention deficit, concentration problems, and the cognitive developmental delays make it harder for them to recognise rules and to comply with them. It makes things even more difficult that they often come from a family with multiple disadvantages, which means that they do not recieve any kind of proper guidance from the family environment, which leads to a clear dependence on their part. The pupils of the partner schools are mostly special needs children with multiple disadvantages. The core of their social integration is education, which aims to stop them from becoming the victims of their surroundings. The objective of the project is to teach these children road traffic safety and the correct, safe usage of the internet. In order to achieve that, the project improves their learning abilities and cognitive skills. With a playful approach during developmental exercises, the children will learn about the meanings of traffic signs, types of vehicles, the signs of vehicles designed for a specific usage, their hotline numbers, and the job of their crew. They will learn the correct traffic morale and the rules that they should consistently abide by during their independent living. They will learn the proper usage of IT devices, the advantages of social media, and how to avoid becoming victims of con men. The teachers will recieve short-term tranings, while four special education schools from abroad will take part in the partnership. The Hungarian Pécsi Éltes EGYMI special school will present and teach their methods within the framework of animal assisted therapeutic sessions and classes that aim to encourage a higher standard of road safety amongst SN children. The Slovakian special school (Špeciálna základná škola, Speciális Alapiskola) seeks to develop a proper traffic morale amongst the children with the help of the school’s drama group—through performances and follow-up group sessions. Furthermore, in their well equiped workshops, they will educate the teachers of the partner schools on how to do mockups of traffic vehicles and roads. The Slovenian bilingual special school (DOS II Lendava) aims to support traffic safety with the help of story yoga. Through the meditative world of yoga, while listening to stories, the SN children will move along with the music as a fun and interactive way of learning about traffic rules, behavioural norms and all the needed knowledge that will ensure their independent mobility. Last but not least, the teacher of the partnership will have the chance to learn the teaching methods of a special school in Transylvania (Scoala Gimnaziala Speciala Sfintu Gheorghe). Following performances, conversations, ice-breaking activities, class visits, workshops, debates and games, the children will learn the basics of safe internet surfing, and to ask for help from their peers, parents, or teachers. They will learn about the dangers of uploading personal data - such as their passwords, phone number, or even pictures - onto social media platforms. This safe method of using the internet will help SN children to learn how to properly communicate in the cyberspace and to realize that the use of online platforms could have several dangerous consequences. They will learn how to handle their own personal data and that of their family’s, and to successfully filter the content that reaches them through the internet. The best practices offered by the partner schools will help the participating teachers to inform children about traffic and internet safety - with the incorporation of a wide array of new methods. With the incorporation of these new methods, the teachers will be able to improve professionnally, and to form more personal relationships with the pupils and their parents. The adaptation of new methods will be made possible by team work, which will lead the way to creative cooperation inside the schools. The “Be Safe Today” (BEST) project provides a great opportunity for Hungarian language special schools from across the border to get to know each other’s work, all the while enhancing amongst themselves the need for preserving the Hungarian language and culture.
In the frame of the project, four special schools cooperated to show each other the programs and techniques they’ve perfected over the years, aimed at educating special needs children about road and traffic safety as well as internet safety. Over the course of the mobilities, the schools have supported each other in putting these theories to practice in their respective establishments, so that these programs would be part of the everyday curriculum in all the partner schools. Over the span of three years, the special schools in Hungary, Slovenia and Romania have founded a drama group in which the children direct the plays, make the costumes, and take part in situational exercises which raise awareness about the important rules and behaviours relating to road safety. Based on the story yoga program introduced by the Lendava special school, the other special schools have started a weekly session where they take the children on a journey into the world of stories, utilizing the elements of yoga. Yoga doesn’t only contribute to the physical aspect of children’s lives, but also to their mental health: with its relaxation techniques, it helps calm the children who suffer from frustration and behavioural problems. The animal assisted therapy methods aimed at educating children about road safety was introduced by the Pécsi Éltes EGYMI special school and is currently implemented in the other schools with the help of a visiting therapy dog. All three of these establishments are planning to train their own therapy dog in the future. The Pécs special school will continue to provide the necessary support in realizing their goals. The program designed by the Romanian school was created to improve internet safety. All three other establishments have included the learned methods in their IT classes as mandatory teaching materials. The events of the project were presented by the coordinating institution at the National Conference on Rare Diseases in February 2022. The doctors, educators, university students and parents were told about the events of the projects through leaflets and short films. At the national conference, the Pécs school demonstrated the professional programs and 3 years of working together through presentations and hands-on demonstrations. The target group of the project were 6–16 year old special needs children, whose independence and societal integration was facilitated by this project. The project particularly prioritized children from disadvantaged backgrounds, for whom learning information related to traffic and internet safety will prevent them from becoming victims themselves later on. Although Covid-19 has made it more difficult to reach parents directly, thanks to online learning opportunities, the parents had the possibility to be involved in certain programs and methods of the projects that the children have already become acquainted with. Through the online platforms Google Meet and Jitsi, the police held lectures for the parents aimed at “improving a safer living situation”. The mobilities and the programs in the schools that were related to the projects have made life in the said establishments much more colourful, have strengthened the professional motivation of the teachers and greatly contributed to the fight against burn-out. Teachers from other schools and parents interested in the education in the school could learn about the events of the project through Erasmus recitation contests, drawing exhibitions, and exhibitions on natural and recyclable materials. The local media also reported on the Erasmus programs and mobilities in schools in the form of written press and audiovisual media. The monthly events of the project have improved the children’s learning difficulties, their reading and comprehension skills. Working together in the project brought children with different forms of disability closer together and in this way promoted natural integration within the school. Conclusion: The direct results of the project can be seen in the preventive education and training activities that take place in the four institutions, which aim at improving the safety and independence of the students, and in the longer term contribute to the social integration of special needs children. From a long-term perspective, we consider it important that the students of the four schools acquired knowledge, abilities and skills with the animal assisted traffic safety program introduced by the school in Pécs, the story yoga taught by the Slovenian school, the acting program that develops creativity by the Slovak school and the method that promotes internet safety by the Romanian school. In the framework of the project, the teachers of the four establishments have developed professional and friendly relationships, which strengthens cohesion among Hungarians across the border and enables the appropriate flow of information and learning about the diverse cultural values that can be found in each region.