These posts have some link to the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, whether providing information and resources to use, thoughts and reflections about church and school during this time, or challenging us to think about what the ‘new normal’ might be like.
We’re back in lockdown again, schools are closed to most children again, many families of children and young people with additional needs are struggling again. It’s like we’re in a recurring lockdown ‘Groundhog Day’, but there are things that families as well as churches can do to help everyone to be able to cope better, … Continue reading Lost In Lockdown Again? How To Keep On Supporting Children With Additional Needs.
Happy New Year! Now there is a phrase filled with all sorts of questions, opportunities and possibilities this time around! Will it be happy? How can we tell? Do we say “Happy New Year!” with confidence that it will contain happiness, or out of hope that it might, or in defiance from a place where … Continue reading After Last Year, Will It Be A Positive Year Ahead? Never Give Up Trying!
Through my role at Urban Saints I am proud to be part of the Disabled Children’s Partnership (DCP), a coalition of more than 80 organisations campaigning for better support for disabled children and their families. Earlier in 2020 the DCP published an influential 'Left In Lockdown' report on the impact of lockdown on disabled children and … Continue reading Back To School? Essential Services Restarting? How Has That Been Going For Disabled Children…
‘Hygge’ is a Danish and Norwegian word for a mood of coziness and comfortable conviviality with feelings of wellness and contentment. With a recent study showing that people living in the arctic circle are armed with a mindset linked to this that helps combat the long ‘polar night’, a bit of ‘hygge’ might come in … Continue reading What Can Special Needs Parents Learn From Scandinavian ‘Hygge’
It’s been over six-months since lockdown started, and although for some there is the beginning of a return to some kind of normality, schools going back, offices opening up, for others lockdown continues like some never-ending groundhog day. With the pandemic seemingly entering 'Phase 2' now, things look like they could get harder again.Even for … Continue reading Lost In Lockdown: Left Behind
It's over six months in since the start of lockdown and some churches are beginning to open back up for in-building services again, exploring ways to meet the Government guidelines for gatherings of no more than 30 people, or is it six, or is it 3.14159. It’s difficult, the rules keep changing and most churches … Continue reading Beyond Zoom: Supporting Additional Needs Families
It had been coming for six long months, since school closed due to the Coronavirus lockdown back in March. Back then, James was on a gradual build-up of his time in school, slowly getting back to where he had been before epilepsy, and the associated anxiety that came with it entered his world. You see, … Continue reading The Day Finally Came, But Who Would Be The Anxious One?
It seems like a lifetime ago that ‘Lockdown’ began, including the closure of school to all but a few children, in an attempt to limit the spread of the Coronavirus COVID-19. In reality it was just three months ago… the equivalent of two school summer holidays. For some the time has passed uneventfully, children have … Continue reading Returning To School – Resources To Help Children With Additional Needs And Their Families
Some wonderful thoughts about acts of kindness in a pandemic (and a familiar face for regular readers of The Additional Needs Blogfather!) in this excellent blog from my friend Miriam, who writes as ‘faithmummy’ (do read more of her blog posts, they are awesome!)
I stood in the playground of my daughter’s school in mid March as parents and grandparents gathered. There was only one thing being talked about: Coronavirus and panic buying! While many were stressing about shortages of toilet rolls and hand soap I was getting more and more stressed about the availability of baby wipes with two disabled children who both needed them. Since I wasn’t about to disclose to otherwise strangers about my children’s intimate care needs I kept quiet and walked my daughter home wondering how I would meet her and her brothers needs silently.
No-one could have predicted that by the end of that week my daughter’s school would close, along with every other school in the country, for an indefinite period due to a worldwide pandemic.
Coronavirus was no longer about which shops had toilet rolls but now about life and death and living in lockdown.
It’s…
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The media is full of bleak, challenging and depressing news at the moment; stories from around the world of the Coronavirus causing serious illness and death, of devastation to lives and livelihoods, of nations close to collapse as they try to respond to this crisis. But it's not all bad news, there are glimmers of … Continue reading CBM: How A Christian Disability Charity Response To Coronavirus Is Saving Lives
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