Kids Ministry Tips to Support Children with Disability
One of your regular girls, Lisa (10), has an intellectual disability and doesn’t seem to be engaging in the Bible reading. She often gets distracted and wants to leave the room.
On Sunday morning at kids’ church, Terry (7), who has cerebral palsy, is struggling to complete his craft. In frustration, he scrunches up the paper, and opts for playing with toys.
Sarah (5) is autistic and comes along to the Friday kids’ club. She’s social and enjoys being there, but often is not interested in joining in on the games. When asked to join in, she’ll shake her head and look away.
When you have children in your ministry who have a disability, it can be tricky trying to find ways to encourage involvement and participation, particularly if it’s met with any kind of resistance. We want all our young people to join in and feel part of the group but if someone is presenting as non-verbal, has trouble with fine motor skills, or showing a lack of interest, we might not always be sure about how best to proceed.
There are three key reasons why we want to think through ways to enable children with disability to participate and be able to connect with others and God’s word.
We want to be:
1) concerned for their faith development and finding ways that nurtures their belief in God,
2) find ways that help them to effectively connect with God in meaningful ways that will stick with them every day; and
3) cultivate a community of belonging, where all people feel welcome and active in the ministry.
Here is a list of 5 ways to help enable young people with disability to meaningfully participate in church ministries and services.
1) Different ways to engage and read the Bible
Have the reading on display or in their hands – a laminated printout can also work well. From here, you can:
- Engage everyone in dramatic reading and assign roles for people to play.
- Create small groups to read the passage together and recreate the scenes using playdoh, Lego, or drawing, and then share what they’ve done with others.
- Use familiar pictures, emojis, or icons for key word associations as you read along.
- Highlight or underline key words from a passage that are helpful to learn and understand.
This website https://www.freebibleimages.org/ is a great resource of ready-made images or PowerPoint slides that will complement a reading – You can always add a text box with a few verses of text on the image which gives everyone something helpful to follow along with.
2) Offer craft or other activities according to their strengths
Sometimes young people choose not to participate in craft or other activities if it is too difficult or discouraging. There may be limitations or expectations that can’t be met.
Some practical ideas include:
- Some elements of the craft already completed, whether it’s pieces of paper being pre-cut, some items already glued together, or some details already filled in. Stickers are also useful.
- Offer fail-safe activity sheets where they won’t get the answers wrong, use word or shape tracing, let them take home the leader’s example craft, or allow them to copy from someone else’s work.
- Have tools that cater to different needs such as large grip pencils or easy handle scissors, etc.
These ideas work best as an option for the young person to take if they choose to, rather than singling people out. The options can be laid out to choose from, or in different stations, depending on the size and function of your group.
3) Enable captions in videos
It’s more common to have captions turned on when viewing content on streaming services or social media. Improvements in technology have made it easier to add captions, for example, in videos that you make or turning them on for sites such as YouTube. Captions prevent people from missing out on content particularly if there are any issues with audio. This also reduces the fatigue of people who are hard of hearing and may be otherwise straining to hear the audio.
4) Offer alternate activities to run simultaneously
If children just won’t participate in activities like crafts or games, try having another small activity running at the same time which may be calmer and easier to join in. There will still be positive memories being made and time to socialize, but in a way that may be less confronting. Some ideas for alternate meaningful activities include:
- Colouring in or drawing
- Lego building
- Quiet corner with books and fidgets
- Smaller and more familiar game
These alternate choices could still be used with the main theme of the day. For example, you might ask the group to draw, build, recreate what the Bible story was about, what they have learned, or what their response is.
1) Visual cues and instructions to complement verbal direction
When someone can visually see what the goal is for a game or craft, it makes the communication clear, and children can confidently know what they’re being asked to do. Some examples include:
- Displaying key words and images/icons
- Doing a demonstration of the game or showing how the craft works
- Visual sequences (as displayed in the image below)
This will help your participants understand quicker and with less need for verbal repetition. Keep the instructions or key words/images displayed throughout the duration of the segment you are doing.
As we think through ways to support a young person with disability, it’s helpful to remember that what will help one person, will often be beneficial for all – especially when done in collaboration. As you get to know a child with disability in your ministry, you’ll be able to fine tune ways to help each person participate accordingly.
One of your best resources is to ask parents or carers on how their child may engage best, or what their interests, skills, and strengths are. But keep in mind, we don’t want to limit a young person from what they may be capable of doing. Sometimes in different contexts, a young person might be more willing to give something a go if they have the right support, encouragement, and trust. Give things a go and see if a young person is responsive. If not, consider what the barrier is, and what can be done to overcome it – it will certainly be worth it!
