Raising children with special needs is hard. Just getting them to school and doctors appointments can be a struggle. Depending on the disability, kids can have a very negative experience fitting into the structures or routines of regular church attendance. Even when congregations make an effort to be inclusive, the barriers are simply too much. I’m blown away by a recent blog post from Key Ministry on this topic. Dr. Grcevich shares the full results. That is
Throughout the course of our time spent together, she will say any number of words to me from “silly bird” to “milk” to “thank you” and “cold.” She is just 16 months, so her verbal skills aren’t there yet, but her sign language communicates most everything she needs. He was ten years old when he sat behind a desk in my fourth grade classroom in South Korea. Communication with him was a challenge due to his autism,
Want a fun way to reinforce a Bible lesson that requires little preparation and all kids love? Keep Yes/No sticks on hand for every Bible lesson. Either during the story or at the end of small group time, pass out sticks so that each child has a yes for one hand and a no for the other. Pose questions to the group that can be answered with either a yes or no response: “Did Eve eat a banana in the
Knowing where to begin is half the battle when starting any new ministry or program. Use this list as a guideline when walking your church through a special needs inclusion initiative. This checklist was a handout provided in a workshop led by Amy Fenton Lee at the recent Children’s Ministry Expo in Lexington, KY. Amy provides links to related articles on her own blog, The Inclusive Church Blog, as well as other helpful websites. You can also download
The following video clip was broadcast live on the Internet from the 2011 Orange conference. It featured Amy Fenton Lee talking about the value, challenges, and opportunity of doing ministry with kids who have special needs. I knew it was going to be powerful, so I grabed a screen capture video on my old church PC. The quality of the graphics was low, but I just had to post it because of all the great things Amy
This guest post is from Amy Fenton Lee of the Inclusive Church blog. Many churches are working to better include children with special needs. Whether or not a church has taken steps to welcome children with learning differences or disabilities, parents can proactively prepare the children’s ministry team for their child’s successful inclusion. #1 Contact the church in advance When planning a first-time visit to a particular church, contact the corresponding ministry director at the church (preschool, elementary
What is Autism and what issues does it raise in real world ministry? That’s what I wanted to talk about in this latest episode of our podcast. So I invited back Amy Fenton Lee who runs a popular blog about special needs children’s ministry. You’ll remember her from our very first podcast and her guest post about adapting curriculum for kids with special needs. Directions: To listen to this audio recording, simply click the play button below
Does your church welcome children with special needs? That is a question that many kids ministry leaders should be asking. It’s also the topic of our very first podcast. It took a little more work than I expected, but the end result is a very helpful conversation about welcoming special needs children into your church. The guest for this podcast was Amy Fenton Lee from The Inclusive Church blog. Directions: To listen to this 24 minute audio
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of god and knows God.” I John 4:7 In schools across America, every teacher’s goal is to help each child become the most successful they can be in the classroom. Sometimes a child has special needs which require them to receive extra help. These needs are addressed by creating an individual education plan for that child with accommodations and modifications
Five Ways to Make ANY Curriculum More Inclusive Including a child with special needs can present challenges inside a church’s programming. However, by planning ahead and incorporating easy changes into the existing curriculum’s lesson plan, the classroom setting can better include the child with cognitive or physical challenges. The key to making effective adaptations is in understanding the participating students’ strengths and weaknesses. Knowing the children’s ability levels is the starting point for making any curriculum changes. This is a guest post
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