“Especial Friends For Especial Students” is a project coordinated by Sweden in partnership with Poland, Turkey, Lithuania and Italy, on a span of 24 months. It is an undeniable fact that alternative types of therapy are sometimes the best way to achieve improvement in the case of children facing certain problems, like in the case of children diagnosed to be in the autistic spectrum, suffering from attention deficit, behavioral issues, developmental, speech and learning impediments, but also psychiatric setbacks. One of the most widely accepted ways of dealing with these issues is finding support in animal assisted therapy. The targeted objectives are: To aid learning issues related to reading, speech, mathematics and social skills for the individuals in need of specific educational help (mentally, emotionally, cognitive, behaviorally and physically); To increase the level of teachers` competences regarding the European dimension by acknowledging the importance of accepting animals into the educative aspect; To insert animal – supported educational programs into the frame curriculum, where the taught discipline allows it; The number of teachers taking part in learning, teaching and training activities (LTTA) will be of five from each school. Special education teachers, teachers working with students with disabilities, psychiatrists and staff applying animal assisted education in the future will be absolutely needed for the transnational meeting sessions. 80 mobilities (20 mobilities per school) will be assigned to this project for the next two years. The targeted activities of this project are: Partner school presentations, also their cities and countries; Discussions and interviews with therapists and parents of students with disabilities; Dog- assisted therapy; Equine assisted interventions; Dolphin assisted therapy; Classroom educational activities integrating animal assistance Developing teaching and learning activities using birds, rabbits and fishes; Designing applicable and fruitful lesson plans based on animal assisted activities; Exchanges of good practices. The methods used for working with the partners: Therapy programs; Observation; Team-work; Sharing examples of good practice; Teaching using innovative and modern approaches; Interviews; Seminars; Surveys. The applicable targeted outcomes are: For the students that will come in contact with animals such as equines, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, birds and fishes: Self-regulation of feelings and emotions, increase of the self-worth and self-esteem attitude, imply a sense of calm, comfort and safety, divert attention from stressful situations related to depression or anxiety; Expanding the abilities to listen, understand and pay attention of students with special needs; A better positive social attitude of the students will be easily observed The beneficiary students will make good use of the opportunities offered by this project through enhancing their motivation, coordination, fine motor skills, social interaction and communication with peers and adults with the help of animal assisted activities; Special needs students will benefit from cognitive, emotional, physical and social points of view from using animal assisted education; The educators will focus on using the best ways of including the animal assisted interventions into the educational environment while carrying out different activities; The extracurricular dimension targeted by the activities of this project take into consideration the buildup of academic, emotional development, civic engagement and equitable opportunities aspects.
Our project is Especial Friends for Especial Students which is coordinated by Sweden in partnership with Poland, Turkey, Lithuania and Italy, on a span of 24 months. During our project have we tested different types of animal assisted therapy to find ways to achieve improvement in the case of students facing certain difficulties. The partner schools have been organized in different ways so every school have adapted their solutions to their conditions. Some schools have special needs classes/groups and some have integrated classes with students in the autistic spectrum, suffering from attention deficit, behavioral issues, developmental, speech and learning impediments, but also psychiatric setbacks. The objectives were: To aid learning issues related to reading, speech, mathematics and social skills for the individuals in need of specific educational help (mentally, emotionally, cognitive, behaviorally and physically); To increase the level of teachers` competences regarding the European dimension by acknowledging the importance of accepting animals into the educative aspect. To insert animal – supported educational programs into the frame curriculum, where the taught discipline allows it. The number of teachers taking part in learning, teaching and training activities (LTTA) varied depending of different reasons. The first LTTA was in November 2021. Due to Covid 19 we had to wait one year. There were still some restrictions so the number of participant were lower than the expected. During the second LTTA in Poland the war in Ukraine had started. Some countries worried about safety for the participants and didn´t send a whole group of 5 teachers. Lithuania didn´t have the time to attend because of other Erasmus+ projects. In the LTTA 3 in Italy every country had 5 teachers except Lithuania who were 3. In LTTA 4 there were 5 teachers from Lithuania and Poland. There were 7 from Italy and only 3 from Sweden. This because of strained relationships between politicians in Sweden and Turkey. In the last LTTA in Lithuania there were 8 teachers from Turkey, 7 from Italy, 5 from Poland and 3 from Sweden. The headmaster in Sweden couldn´t let 5 teachers leave the school in May due to exams. The participant teachers have been special education teachers, teachers working with students with disabilities and teachers applying animal assisted education. The targeted activities of this project were: Partner school presentations, also their cities and countries; Discussions and interviews with student and parents of students with disabilities; Differenet kind of animal assisted education, for example: Dog assisted therapy; Alpaca assisted interventions; Rabbit assisted interventions; Bird assisted interventions; Classroom educational activities integrating animal assistance with different kind of animals like horses, goats and turtles. Developing teaching and learning activities using for example birds, rabbits and fishes; Designing applicable and fruitful lesson plans based on animal assisted activities; Exchanges of good practices. The methods used for working with the partners: Observation; Team-work; Sharing examples of good practice; Teaching using innovative and modern approaches; Interviews; Seminars; Surveys. The applicable targeted outcomes were: For the students that came in contact with animals such as dogs, rabbits, birds and alpacas: Self-regulation of feelings and emotions, increase of the self-worth and self-esteem attitude, imply a sense of calm, comfort and safety, divert attention from stressful situations related to depression or anxiety; Expanding the abilities to listen, understand and pay attention of students with special needs. The beneficiary students made good use of the opportunities offered by this project through enhancing their motivation, coordination, fine motor skills, social interaction and communication with peers and adults with the help of animal assisted activities. Special needs students benefited from cognitive, emotional, physical and social points of view from using animal assisted education. The educators focused on using the best ways of including the animal assisted interventions into the educational environment while carrying out different activities. The extracurricular dimension targeted by the activities of this project take into consideration the buildup of academic, emotional development, civic engagement and equitable opportunities aspects.