Going on an overseas mission trip can often be a transforming and life changing experience; offering an opportunity to serve in a very different culture and environment, challenging our worldview and our perceptions of our role in the world. Taking young people on a short-term mission trip experience can equip them and inspire them for … Continue reading Can You Take Young People With Additional Needs On Overseas Mission?
A question I get asked loads of times is this; “How can I explain additional/special needs to children?” The answer depends on the context, as there are different ways that this can be responded to, determined by who the answer is meant for. Are we responding to a question from a child with additional needs … Continue reading Answering Children’s Questions About Additional Needs – With Help From Winnie-the-Pooh!
20% of children and young people have an additional need or disability of some kind; if your church includes children and young people, some of them are likely to need additional support. Many of these children and young people, and their families, feel excluded from a wide range of social and other activities, including church, … Continue reading Six Ways To Make Your Children’s Work And Holiday Club More Inclusive
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 Additional Needs Children’s Work: Using What They Enjoy To Help Them Learn
Devoted… an important word, one which we often hear, and a word that we all probably think we fully understand; but do we? How truly deep a word is it? And what might it mean in the context of caring for a child or young person with additional needs; whether as parent, carer, other family … Continue reading Be Devoted To One Another In Love
Perhaps never before has humanity lived in such a self-centred, self-obsessed, self-serving, narcissistic, selfish society as we do now. Advertising and marketing media is filled with slogans such as ‘Because you’re worth it!’, ‘It’s all about you!’, and recently that dreadful advert from TUI (formerly Thomson Holidays), where an entourage of lackeys serve the every … Continue reading Because He’s Worth It!
In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re in nativity season! A stress fuelled time of rehearsals, costumes, children trying to learn their parts, performances, tears and tantrums (and that’s just the adults!) Tensions are running high, no one can find the stuffed sheep, and someone has to tell little Jack that the actual shepherds didn’t wear Buzz Lightyear dressing gowns…So, what part is there in the nativity play for a disabled child?
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 when thinking … Continue reading Church Children’s Work: Do ‘Age Groups’ Or ‘Interest Groups’ Work Best?
Jesus is surely the greatest story teller the world has ever known. His stories, also known as parables, are lively, exciting, challenging and filled with teaching. Every time we read one of Jesus’ parables, we learn something new through them… they speak into our lives like no other storyteller has. We all have our favourite … Continue reading Children With Additional Needs Are NOT Second Best To Jesus
The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, teaches us about how the body of Christ, the church, is made up of many parts. Many parts that combine to make one body, baptized by one Holy Spirit… He goes on to describe the various parts, firstly through metaphor (foot, hand, eye, ear, head etc.) and then … Continue reading What Part Of The Body Of The Church Is A Child With Additional Needs?
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 