Summer Church: Effectively Communicating Routine Changes For Neurodivergent Members

It is Christmas Day and you’re getting ready for church to begin. You’ve prepared everything for an engaging, winsome, and memorable service. People start to arrive and exchange festive greetings. One of your regular families arrive and you greet them at the door. You notice one of their children straight away. His eyes dart around the room. He brings his hands to his ears and runs out the door to where he normally goes for kids’ church but the doors are locked.  Confused and upset, this young boy becomes overwhelmed and within minutes he is having a meltdown. This boy’s experience of coming to church is different and his expectations of what church is for him are not being met.

 As the end of year draws near and Christmas time approaches, regular church routines will change. While many of us expect things to be different, neurodivergent children are likely to find the change in routine difficult. This can produce anxiety or even meltdowns caused by unmet expectations. How can we help neurodivergent young people cope with these changes?

 The best way to help neurodivergent young people to manage expectations and cope with potential anxiety producing situations is communication. Strong communication is key between the children’s and youth minister to neurodivergent members as well as to parents, other ministry leadership teams, and the wider church. Changes affect everyone, either directly or indirectly, but good communication about plans and expectations benefits everyone.

 Here are some practical ways to share with the people in your church the upcoming Christmas and summer plans and routines.

 Create Calendar Cards

Create a calendar that lists the upcoming events for the months of December and January. Include things such as “final Friday for kids’ club”, “Christmas Day family service at 10am”, or “wreath making afternoon”.   Print the details on card with a magnet to keep on the fridge so it doesn’t get lost, and the family can implement as needed. Having all the information in one space, rather than on separate postcards helps keeps neurodivergent families on track and not missing or forgetting details.

 Keep your website updated

Make the home page of your church website the place where people can instantly see what the upcoming events and details are. Keep them up to date and remove anything that’s finished or complete. Be sure to include all the service times and structures over Christmas and summer holidays - even if there are no changes, as it helps people map out where they need to be and when. Your church’s social media is also a good way to put posts up about upcoming events and details, including additional information, images, and video footage to help manage expectations.

 Create a Visual Schedule

For neurodivergent people, often what can be seen and read is understood faster than what is heard. For some people, it might mean using pictures or images to help communicate any changes – particularly if there is a change in location or structure of the time together. The example below shows how you might communicate the expectations for Christmas Day. These can also be sent to parents ahead of time so that they can help communicate the expectations before arrival.

 Keep parents informed

With specific changes to programs for young people, be sure to have clear communication with parents. This includes details on when the last day of term is, and any changes in the program such as end-of-year celebrations. Parents are your best resource of communicating changes to the Neurodivergent children and preparing them ahead of time for what to expect. Rather than only informing or reminding the young people, talk with the parents, hand them notes with details, and send email updates with all the information they need to help manage their child’s expectations.

Adjust the Congregations’ Expectations

Over the summer season, young people are sometimes required to remain in the service with activity packs. This means more movement and more noise. It can be helpful to adjust the expectations of the wider congregation so there is more generosity when there are disruptions.  This is also a great opportunity for intergenerational togetherness as we delight in doing church together. In the weeks leading up to changes in regular congregation routine, share with everyone what the temporary changes are. Make the most of announcements up the front, newsletters that go out to the people, and having conversations with people when you interact with them. During the service, celebrate the diversity of people who are present, and assure everyone who is present that minor disturbances are ok and expected. Discuss with your ministry team what strategies will be best and who will champion communication at this level.

Final tips

You can ask parents for their advice on what communication tools would be most helpful for their child. They may have access to resources or have systems they’ve implemented as a family. Adopting multiple methods of communication will provide additional benefit for neurodivergent young people to adjust to the temporary and seasonal routine.

As your mid-week ministries start to wrap up for the year and you look forward to Christmas and summer plans, what communication strategies could you use? How will you enable effective communication to take place for the benefit of young neurodivergent people and the wider church?