These blog posts include tips to help children’s and youth workers engage with, include, and create places of belonging for everyone, especially children and young people with additional needs.
Where inclusion in church is done well, particularly where it is done well within children’s and youth work, there are often unsung heroes working in the background to care for and support those with additional needs and disabilities. These folk get alongside children and young people who need additional support and provide them with the … Continue reading One-to-One Heroes
Often the starting point for a church looking to be more inclusive of children and young people with additional needs is to seek out some training to help them to do this better during their Sunday morning sessions, or during a mid-week club night. To be able to work more effectively with all children and … Continue reading Additional Needs Families And A Truly Supportive Church
The opportunities to make good or bad choices regarding children and young people with additional needs or disability exist in our church based work every week. A few months ago I wrote a blog post ‘Haircut Sir?’ that included a brief story about a youth leader being put through to my ‘phone one day whose … Continue reading Lessons From Exclusion
Heartbreakingly, 60% of children with additional needs are bullied (source: Ability Path). With some 2.5 million children and young people in the UK having an additional need of some kind, that’s 1.5 million who have experienced bullying… One is one too many, 1.5 million is an absolute outrage! When we think about childhood bullying, the … Continue reading Tuts, Looks, And Loud Comments – Let ALL The Little Children Come To Me (Part 2)
I received a message last Sunday that made my blood boil… Those of you that know me will appreciate that this doesn’t happen very often; I’m rather determined at times but rarely lose my temper. The message I received made me furious, absolutely mad as could be… Livid… I still am, and here’s why… Some … Continue reading Let ALL The Little Children Come To Me…
That moment… that moment as a children’s or youth worker when you realise during the ‘talk time’ that you’ve just lost some of your group. They were able to focus for the first three or four minutes, but now, five minutes in, you see them starting to get distracted, starting to fidget. You’ve lost contact … Continue reading Minecraft, Lego & Additional Needs Children’s Work!
Warm summers evenings… do you remember those? I remember one a while back, when running a weeknight children’s club at my home church. A beautiful evening, so I was very happy to be on the door greeting the children as they arrived, and saying hello to their parents. It was then that I saw a … Continue reading The Power Of Yes!
Last week James needed his hair cut. A simple enough task you might think, but in James’ case it is one of very many tasks that require a routine to be known, and more importantly rigorously followed, in every aspect. Firstly, there is the location; sat on the wooden bench in our hallway at home. … Continue reading Haircut Sir?
In 1968 ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, possibly the most iconic sci-fi movie of all-time, hit the cinema. 16 years later the sequel, ‘2010: The Year We Make Contact’ arrived. Both are firm favourites of mine, but a clip from ‘2010’ has been going around in my head this week, a week that has been hugely … Continue reading 2017: A Faith Odyssey
Sometimes, we do things that can make very little sense at all. Sometimes, we do those things unthinkingly, because “It’s always been done that way…” Sometimes, it’s only when we are challenged to really think about it, that we realise that there might be a better way… That’s the journey I’ve been on recently when … Continue reading Children’s Peer Groups: Same Age? Or Shared Interest?
Delightful Handmade Dog Products and Gifts
An additional needs Dad and Son baking adventure...
Special Education Teaching Resources, Sensory Stories and SEND Information
The Additional Needs Blogfather 