Recognising And Respecting Choices: A Trip To The New Forest with James

James did really well, in part because we had listened to him and recognised and respected his wishes. He felt heard. He felt cared for and loved. And he was filled with joy.

Impact of UK 2025 Budget on SEND Families: An Overview

In summary, the recent budget offered immediate, positive financial relief for low-income families through welfare changes (like scrapping the two-child limit), but introduced a complex, long-term change to SEND funding that brings hope for future systemic stability but offers no present solution to the immediate, ongoing crisis for children needing support.

Was Apostle Paul Disabled? Insights from His Journey

Do you know someone, whether a child/young person or adult, who is blind or partially sighted? How could you help them to encounter Jesus, grow in their Christian faith and thrive in Christian community?

Managing Caregiver Fatigue: A Self-Care Guide For Parents (Guest Post)

Here Jenny Wise guest posts on The Additional Needs Blogfather, with some great wisdom about carer fatigue and self-care...

Jesus Heals A Disabled Woman On The Sabbath: Her Story Teaches Us Seven Lessons

Jesus noticed her: Disabled people can often become ‘anonymous’, ‘ignored’, ‘overlooked’, maybe even ‘invisible’. I wonder how many other people saw her and looked away, hoping they didn’t catch her eye. Jesus didn’t, Jesus noticed her. Do we sometimes ignore a disabled person in our community, avoiding their look?

Paracetamol / Tylenol, Trump, And 10 Other Autism Myths

The paracetamol/tylenol Autism myth isn't the first myth that Autistic people have had to deal with. It's just the latest in a long line of misinformation, misunderstanding, and hype. It is important to call these myths out for what they are, so, here’s my guide to this one and another ten Autism myths and how we can bust them.

The Transformative Power of AI in Supporting Children with Additional Needs

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly evolving, and its applications are extending into diverse fields, offering innovative solutions to complex challenges. One area where AI holds immense promise is in supporting children with additional needs. From personalised learning experiences to enhanced communication and therapy, AI-powered tools are opening new avenues for development, independence, and inclusion for these children. Note: As this article is about AI, I used AI (Google Gemini) to help create it!

A Creative Way To Use AI To Enhance Communication

I've been exploring how to use AI to reimagine some photos of James into cartoon style images, so that I can put them together into a communication booklet for him to use to share what he would like to do.

Five lessons from when Jesus heals a Canaanite woman’s daughter

It is quite possible that this woman’s daughter also has Epilepsy, which without any treatment at the time would have been terrifying and for the child could lead to physical injury, mental disability, and possibly death.

James’ Wonderfully Inclusive Rainbow Cookies

As we were making cookies today, I noticed something for the first time about the way that James added the colourful rainbow chocolate buttons on top of the pressed out cookie shapes... it got me thinking about how wonderfully inclusive he was being... Here's four things I noticed...