The proposed project stems from a long term cooperation among two partner organizations from Slovenia and Croatia that act as educational, rehabilitation and residential centres for children, youth and adults with special needs, predominantly developmental disorders and physical disabilities. Recently, both organizations have re-emphasized their vision and commitment to offer experience of participation and inclusion in every-day life to young people with severe developmental disabilities and disorders. The core of the project is a six-day bilateral youth exchange for 16 participants, young adults with special needs (cognitive impairment and associated physical disability and autism spectrum disorder). The mobility will take place in Kraljevica, Croatia, in July 2014. Young people will interact with their peers from another country in a relaxed and supportive environment, get to know their peers' culture, work on their interpersonal skills including empowering their cross-cultural competence, and empower themselves to take a more active part in society through social learning, peer learning and experiential learning. Thematic focus of the project is based on Gandhi's quote: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” We will explore how young people from different countries can effectively communicate with each other, even though they are facing specific language development challenges, some might not even use verbal communication. Expected impact goes beyond learning a few words in a new language. Through this project we would like to impact competence, sef-esteem and motivation of participants for language learning and communication in general, as well as empower partner organizations to develop new knowledge regarding teaching foreign languages to people with special needs, their language development, alternative modes of communication and bilingual youth with special needs. A practical result will be a short Slovenian-Croatian picture travel dictionary for people with special needs.