Fridays from the Families: Helping children with special needs adjust to church renovations

Last week I posted about a new series in which you'll hear directly from individuals with special needs and their families. Today I kick it off with Becky who blogs about life with Mozart, Picasso, and Princess at paintingwithpicasso.blogspot.com. If you follow Amy Fenton Lee's blog, The Inclusive Church, you may know Becky as the mom who took Amy's posts about mothers with autism and personalized them. I would highly recommend you check out Becky's blog once you're done with the incredibly useful post below!

And, without any more introduction from me, read on from Becky about her family's experiences after the renovation of their church building...

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Recently, for many different reasons, our church decided to go through a re-evaluation of our ministry goals, to review our purposes for each ministry of the church, and to find ways to better reach our community. Along with this came an opportunity to do some major renovations inside our church building, as we prepare to be the best church for the neighborhood. We took what had been a small lobby area, crammed with offices, and took out & relocated the main office. The space is now a wide-open lobby, with a café, space to sit and mingle and enjoy conversation. Sounds great, right? It absolutely is! Except...

Our son has special needs and has huge problems with change & transitions.

My name is Becky. My husband, Tim, and I are parents to 3 wonderful kids, ages 11, 6 & 4. Our middle child has some definite special needs. We are in the process of getting an appointment with a local children's hospital to see whether or not he will get an official diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome, as he meets all of the criteria based on psycho-educational evaluations.

Tim & I have tried to prepare our kids for the coming internal changes, especially since we know that our son has trouble. A few weeks ago, our son was having trouble in church - not sitting well, not able to listen well - very unusual for him. I took him out of church to give him a break and to try and figure out what was bothering him. As I watched him explore and look around the building, it became more evident that what was bothering him were the changes in the building. I thought I had done a pretty good job, but I probably could have done better, especially knowing just how hard change can be for my own child.

How could I have prepared our son better? And how can you prepare your child who may also have issues with change and transition? Here are some ideas that will hopefully help if there are changes planned for your church or for another place you regularly visit.

1. As soon as you find out about the changes, take a picture of the “old” before work begins (or, as early in the process as you are able).
2. Visit regularly to see progress, and have the “old” photo handy to remember what it did look like.
3. Visit at times when it’s not busy - for us, with the church, that meant stopping by on a weeknight while there was work going on.
4. With your child, talk with someone in charge about the renovations - the purpose, what the finished project will look like. You’ll find that people are eager to discuss a change about which they’re passionate. They do not need to explain great details, just be available to explain & answer questions your child might have. (If possible, set this up before-hand, so that you can explain your child’s needs & reason for questions, to the person with whom you’ll talk. This will help prepare them for how to best explain things to your child.)
5. Be sensitive to the fact that your child may take several weeks to adjust to the “newness” of the finished project. Keep the photo of the “old” with you to explain differences. For us, that meant reminding our son that the café area used to be an office. There wasn’t room for him to sit and talk with his friends after church. Now the café area allows for extra time with friends, a snack, and a lot of people getting to enjoy each other’s company.

Kids who have troubles with change & transitions take some time to get used to the finished project. We expect that since it’s “done” that all is well. Really, that’s just about “halfway through the project” for a child with issues with transition and change.

Most importantly, be patient! Change is tough for a lot of people. For kids with special needs change can be a particularly hard thing, especially when the change is out of their control. Give them time to internalize the change by spending extra time with them in the new environment. Answer questions, make sure they have opportunity to have some positive experiences in the new setting, and be patient. They will adjust - and they will probably adjust well! - but we need to be patient and understand that they will adjust according to their needs.

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Thank you, Becky, for being our first guest blogger for this series. Once again, you can - and should! - read more from her here!

Our church's curriculum: Treasuring Christ

We have used curricula from GospelLight and Orange on Sunday morning, and - for kids with special needs - we've liked GospelLight best because it includes more activities that worked for our kids. (I overheard at the Accessibility Summit that McLean Bible Church's Access Ministry made the same call, using GospelLight instead of a curriculum specific to special needs ministry.)

However, I'm so very excited about this announcement:
Our church has been working with ministry leaders across the country to create Treasuring Christ, a unified curriculum for early childhood through high school that is Gospel-centered and connects church and home in meaningful ways. And it's available now here!

It is not specific to special needs ministry, but you can use tips from my posts on accommodations and modifications this week for help with that, and we'll be providing some guidance in the near future about using it in special needs ministry settings. (One example is that the curriculum is written in a scaffolded way, with every age group studying the same thing at different age-appropriate levels. This can allow you to pull elements from the younger grade's curriculum to use with older students if necessary.)

I'll be posting more about it in the future, but for now let's me just say this:

CHECK. IT. OUT: http://www.treasuringchristonline.com

Now.

(Seriously.)

And please share the site with others if you find it useful!

"Fair" doesn't mean "the same" (part 4: helpful questions)

I originally planned for this series to just be two posts. To do it justice, though, I've expanded it to five! Here is post four of five. If you missed the previous three, please check them out first:

• "Fair" doesn't mean "the same" (part 1: why)
• "Fair" doesn't mean "the same" (part 2: the terms & mindset)
• "Fair" doesn't mean "the same" (part 3: how)

And now in this penultimate post, I will offer some questions that may be useful for selecting modifications and accommodations for students. I initially wrote this as part of a professional development guide I wrote while working with the national design team for Teach For America, but I have adapted it for ministry settings.

Presentation:

• Can the student listen to and/or follow oral directions given by an adult or an audio tape?
• Can the student read the Bible story in the same way as other students (i.e. from a personal Bible or from the Bible story page from the curriculum)?
• Can the student read and/or understand the story with simplified wording?
• Can the student read the story with enlarged text?
• Can the student understand a different, complementary story if she can't understand the one planned for the lesson?
• Is the student overwhelmed by a lot of text on a page?
• Does the student have sensory problems that could be helped by increasing contrast with colored paper or colored transparency overlays on top of the story?
• Does the student need the story read out loud to him?
• Is the student unable to participate in class without reminders to stay on task?
• Does the student need visual, auditory, or illustrated cues in addition to written directions?

Response:

• Can the student respond verbally?
• Can the student respond nonverbally? If so, how?
• Can the student write?
• Does the student have difficulties writing that could be helped by using a word processor?
• Does the student’s disability affect the amount of writing he can produce?

Timing:

• Does the student need extra time due to his disability to process questions?
• Does the student need breaks to stay focused?
• Does the student become anxious when working on certain skills (such as reciting a memory verse) so that it might be optimal to complete it at a different time than other students?
• Does the student learn better, worse, or the same following physical activities (i.e. would it help to schedule game/rec time or playground trips at a certain time in the class)?

Setting:

• Can the student learn the Bible story and concepts in a typically sized class?
• Can the student only learn the Bible story and concepts with a few other students in the room?
• Can the student only learn the Bible story and concepts in a one-on-one setting?
• Does the student exhibit behaviors that are distracting to other students?
• Is the student easily distracted or overwhelmed by motion, noise, or visual displays?
• Does the student need to take the test in a different way from other students, such as orally? If so, then a different setting may be necessary.

Classroom aids and design:

• Does the student function better when a predicable routine is followed?
• Can the student learn about the Bible story without additional visual aids or other sensory inputs?
• Can the student physically enter the classroom or Bible study setting?
• Does the classroom design encourage or inhibit learning for the student?

Would you add any more questions to the mix? C'mon, I know I didn't include all possible questions. (And my love language is comments. Just saying.)


And as a reminder, tomorrow kicks of the first post in the series Fridays from the Families. You don't want to miss what Becky has to share here then! On Saturday, I'll be posting the final part of this series, part 5: making the right choices.

"Fair" doesn't mean "the same" (part 3: how)

On Monday, I posted about why modifications and accommodations may be necessary in special needs ministry. Yesterday, I defined the terms. (If you missed either of those posts, please read them before continuing with this third installment!)

And today I promised to share specific strategies. This is not meant to be a complete list, but it should give you an idea of the types of changes that could be useful. (However, as we'll see in the posts coming tomorrow and Saturday, we need to keep in mind that each is chosen on an individual, case-by-case basis.) Without further ado...

Accommodations (changes to how content is taught or presented)

• Presenting instructions in multiple ways, offering clarification as necessary
• Posting visuals, like a stop sign by the door to remind individuals not to exit the classroom without permission
• Providing reminders to help students stay on task or focus
• Creating and implementing an elopement plan for individuals at risk for leaving
• Choosing a different classroom that you would typically use (so that a wheelchair can be accommodated, for example, or so that more space is available for a child with sensory integration difficulties to have a cool-down corner)
• Enlarging font size
• Providing sign language interpreters and/or providing reserved seating near the front for individuals who need to read the lips of the preacher
• Allowing a person to answer in a different way (i.e. nonverbal responses if speech ability is limited; verbal responses if written one are difficult; and so on)
• Including open spaces in which wheelchair seating can be accommodated without forcing people to sit in the aisles
• Teaching in a multi-sensory way to target different learning styles (i.e. incorporating visuals, audio, movement, and touch whenever possible)
• Letting a child listen instead of singing during music time
• Splitting one class into two for someone who does better with smaller settings
• Providing preferential seating, adaptive furniture, and/or special lighting or acoustics.
• Positioning yourself near a student who needs more frequent redirection or who does better with closer proximity to you
• Offering alternate worship areas (for example, we offer a smaller worship setting in which the service is projected on large screens, as well as our larger sanctuary)
• Posting schedules, which can help provide a predictable structure for kids who need that
• Limiting distractions
• Using technology to augment lessons or to assist learning (for the group or the individual; i.e. we have a high school student who is nonverbal, using an audio Bible device to "read" aloud during class and texting his leaders prayer requests that he wants them to pray out loud)
• Providing a Bible story page with visuals
• Creating a graphic organizer for students to jot down their notes during a sermon or class (for examples, see here and here)
• Avoiding idiomatic expressions or sarcasm for students who think in more literal or concrete ways
• Using more stringent good health policies (for example, in a class with a child who is medically fragile) 

Modifications (changes to what is taught)

• Creating a separate class for children with disabilities (even when this class uses the same exact curriculum, learning it in an environment separate from non-disabled peers does typically change what is learned and not just how it is learned)
• Using a different curriculum, such as one designed for people with special needs (a few are available, but I'm most familiar with Lifeway's Special Buddies for elementary and we use Access in our separate class for teens and adults) or one designed for younger children (for example, using elements from a preschool curriculum for an elementary-aged student)
• Simplifying what it taught or teaching a child one-on-one instead of in the larger group (which is what we do for one child who hasn't successfully been part of the Bible teaching time in his class; instead, he and his buddy do related puzzles and talk about the same story at a level suitable for him)
• Prioritizing different content for different students
• Changing expectations for students based on their needs (for example, one preschooler with Down syndrome only learned one Bible verse during a year in AWANA at our church - a feat that we celebrated with him and his family because he met reasonable expectations for his abilities!)

As I mentioned earlier, these lists are certainly not exhaustive. What else would you include?

Come back tomorrow for questions you can use for selecting the right modifications and accommodations to use, in part 4: helpful questions, and Saturday for a paradigm to use in decision-making, in part 5: making the right decisions.

Easter 2011

I've been posting on Facebook about the girl's attire choices. Basically, we let her dress herself, within reason. That "within reason" part means that her clothing must be weather-appropriate, modest, and - when going to church - not too casual. So while other families coordinated their kiddos, we let Jocelyn do her thing.

She chose a different, more Easter-y dress Sunday morning, but the tights stayed. And the leprechaun necklace. And two other necklaces. And three bracelets. And the silver gemstone shoes. And the pink purse we found at Goodwill a couple months ago, that one that she has designated her "nice church bag."

She also swiped my headband because we had forgotten her silver one.

When her teacher told her he liked her socks, she shouted joyfully, "They're tights!" and lifted her dress above her head to show him. Just goes to show you that making sure she's dressed modestly doesn't actually mean that she'll behave modestly.

And, by the way, I wish I could get tights like hers. For real.

The shamrock necklace, though? That's all hers. (As are the tights, I suppose, considering they wouldn't make it far up my legs!)

And how dapper is he?!?

(He still lets me dress him, if you can't tell!)

The only accessory he insisted on was the dinosaur in his hand!

Oh, how I love her!

And him!

Even if he tries to run away...

I can still catch him, though.

This, my friends, is a photo shoot when your kids are two and four. C'est la vie!

And their daddy ... he rocks.