If you journey with a nocturnal child (of any age) who is up in the night on a regular basis, I know how hard that journey is, I understand and empathise with you. It may help you to know next time you are up in the early hours that you are not alone, I may well be up with James too.
Routines are important, really important, they are the links of certainty that form a safe chain to follow through the day. Breaking one of those links, even inadvertently, can cause real trauma.
If we don't appropriately support children and young people with a sensory hyper-sensitivity, we not only leave them struggling this time, but create stress and anxiety about a repeat of their sensory overload next time; a double whammy!
Whatever you’ve got, make your post-Christmas fidget box together and have fun playing with it! It may also help the transition from full-on ‘deck the halls’ back to ‘normal’ again, by keeping a few nice Christmassy items to hand.
How can you use the story and song of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to help the children and young people you journey with to change from bullying, marginalising, and isolating their peers with additional needs to understanding, loving, and accepting them?
Sometimes I get asked why we should make the effort to reach out to children and young people with additional needs, when this sometimes means we have to balance their needs against the needs of the rest of the group. I always say the same thing… Jesus told us to go after the 1.
This is a guest blog from Molly Ashton, a long term home educating mum. She and her husband have four children, two by birth and two by adoption. Their older two are now young adults and she continues to home educate their girls; additional needs are a part of this journey...
In the context of children and young people, could it be that in some cases the “disability that affects the acquisition of knowledge and skills” is more a ‘teaching disability’ than a ‘learning disability’?
What is the ‘big picture’? In this blog post, I'm going to share some stories, some statistics, some tips, and some resources, so why not grab a cup of tea or coffee, settle in, and let's go on this journey together.
When thinking about working with children or young people with additional needs and disabilities, churches typically find themselves at one of three waypoints on the journey; accessibility, inclusion, or belonging. But what do each of these waypoints look like...
An additional needs Dad and Son baking adventure...
Special Education Teaching Resources, Sensory Stories and SEND Information
The Additional Needs Blogfather 