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.
Whether you are an overworked children’s, youth or families worker, or a frazzled, stressed out, parent or carer of a child or young person with additional needs, this story is for you. It’s a story about a bumble bee and a hare, a journey God took me on at a retreat, but it’s your story … Continue reading The Story Of The Bumble Bee And The Hare: Choosing Better
Sometimes it can be hard to support our children to learn and develop, especially if their additional needs make learning extra hard. So, what can we do to help them to engage, stay focussed, and enjoy learning and developing?One way can be to use what they already enjoy doing to help them to learn. This … Continue reading Six Ways To Use Football To Aid Additional Needs Learning
Film Title: CODAYear of Release: 2021Directed by: Sian HederCertificate: 12ARunning time: 1 hours, 51 minutes CODA movie poster BBFC certification insight: “CODA is a drama in which a young woman, who is the only hearing person in her deaf fishing family, is torn between duty to them and pursuing her dreams of becoming a singer. There is infrequent strong language ('f**k'), … Continue reading CODA – A Review And Study Plan
Spring is here, the Easter school holidays are coming up fast, longer, warmer days are approaching, so here’s five fun sensory ideas to try with your children to help them get out and explore and think about Spring! See Spring is the time when all the wildlife wakes up after the winter. If you have … Continue reading Five Ideas For Sensory Spring Fun!
Guest post from Andrew Stranack, who argues that society’s continued marginalisation of disabled people means that we are missing out on a valuable talent pool. This article was originally published by Theos Think Tank on 10th March 2022, republished by kind permission, and with thanks from The Additional Needs Blogfather. One of the most inspiring articles … Continue reading Embracing a valuable talent pool: the barriers and gifts of living with a disability
Ukraine burns as the world watches on in horror. Many Ukrainians are escaping to neighbouring countries or relatively ‘safe’ parts of western Ukraine, but many millions are trapped in the living hell of cities being constantly shelled and bombed by the Russian military. As always, those who suffer most in conflict zones, whether through the … Continue reading The Toll Of War On Ukraine’s Disabled Children
There are many characters in the Bible that we might, wrongly perhaps, skip over as not being particularly important; they don’t come across as heroes like Samson or Esther, they aren’t great Kings like David or Solomon, they weren’t vital to the life and story of Jesus like Mary. But some of these often-overlooked characters … Continue reading Mephibosheth – Lost And Found, Hurt And Helped
A book to help children’s, youth, and families’ workers, as well as families themselves, to understand more about Autism, how to identify and remove the barriers that Autistic children and young people can often experience in church, and how together we can create inclusion, belonging, and spiritual development for all. The journey of writing this … Continue reading My New Book: ‘How To Include Autistic Children And Young People in Church’
Something a little more unusual in this blog post as we’re going to be exploring how Artificial Intelligence can be a tool that we can use to help and support people, of any age with additional needs or disabilities, in our churches. A few years ago, the former UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said…“Technology has changed … Continue reading Artificial Intelligence ‘AI’ And Additional Needs
I don’t know about you, but I've tried to keep the festive season going as long as possible, hanging on to the Christmas tree until the last needle had dropped and stretching out the leftover food in as many creative ways as possible. I’m always the last in our street to be taking the plethora … Continue reading 12 New Year Resolutions For Inclusive Children’s And Youth Work
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 