Guest Blog Post: Amy Fenton Lee Special Needs, Getting Started

I had the privledge of meeting Amy Fenton Lee last month at CPC. And let me tell you something about Amy. This girl has energy and it’s completely contagious. I\’m pretty sure I could get a lot more done with her around.

I\’m so excited to have Amy as a guest blogger today. You can find more about Amy on her blog The Inclusive Church. Amy is also a children’s ministry volunteer at her home church, First Baptist Church, Cumming, Georgia.

 

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Special Needs:  Getting Started

We all know that adequate preparation produces a more meaningful experience for both the participants and the volunteers inside children’s ministry environments.  That’s why preparing for the child with special needs is a crucial part of a church’s planning. 

Develop a Special Needs Questionnaire or Intake Form

When it comes to a child’s safety, ignorance is not bliss.  Creating a special needs questionnaire protects everyone involved and enables a church to better respond to a child’s specific needs.  The best way to obtain information about a child’s accommodation requirements is to ask a single question on the registration form for every entering child.  At the bottom of the registration form after the child’s name and parent contact information is requested, the church might add the following statement and question: 

Our church cares for the success and safety of each participant inside our children’s ministry.  Does your child have an allergy, medical condition, learning difference, or any other special need of which our ministry team should be aware?   Circle one:  YES    /    NO

If the parents circle “yes,” then they would be asked to complete a separate and more detailed, special needs questionnaire.  This standard form would provide parents a non-threatening opportunity to elaborate on their child’s needs.  While diplomatic in-person conversations with parents are crucial to helping a family feel accepted by the church, obtaining written documentation is equally important so that facts do not get lost in translation or forgotten.  A church can better prepare for and respond to a specific child’s needs with the information provided on such a form.  Examples of Special Needs Ministry Intake Forms can be seen on The Inclusive Church Blog. 

Recruit a Special Needs Advisor

Enlist the help of an education or medical professional to help equip the children’s ministry team for special needs inclusion.  If your church doesn’t have a member serving as a special education teacher or pediatric therapist, call on someone from the community.  Ask this person to provide general knowledge for expected differences and diagnoses and what appropriate church accommodations might look like.  This advisor may not be someone who serves regularly in the ministry.  But having access to their experience and knowledge may be helpful in crafting anticipated solutions, training ministry volunteers, and working through challenges as they arise. 

Set Goals for Accommodation

Ideally a church would have planned inclusion for every children’s ministry environment.  But in the early days of the ministry, a church may need to tackle one setting or one time period at a time (various hours of Sunday morning programming, Wednesday night activities, VBS, etc).  Securing appropriate space, recruiting and training competent volunteers, and planning activities suited for children with learning differences or medical requirements are all important steps for success.  Special needs ministry can involve a learning curve.  Figure out what your church can do, and do it well.

Broaden Volunteer Training

Most children’s ministry environments already include a child that exhibits learning or behavioral differences associated with a disability.  For special needs statistics, see The Inclusive Church Blog.  When a Bible lesson or activity fails to adequately engage such a child, the likelihood of behavioral challenges escalates quickly.  But when serious thought is given to preparing a learning environment with visual and experiential reinforcement, the child with differences is more likely to participate constructively.  Similarly, when ministry workers are coached for addressing behavioral challenges associated with some diagnoses (e.g. autism spectrum disorder, sensory integration disorder, Anxiety, or ADHD), affected children are more likely to respond favorably while benefitting from a more meaningful church experience.  Equipping all children’s ministry volunteers with effective teaching techniques and behavior management strategies may be the easiest and most impactful way a church can better include all God’s children.  – Amy Fenton Lee

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Amy Fenton Lee enjoys equipping churches for successful special needs inclusion at www.theinclusivechurch.com.  Amy is also a passionate children’s ministry volunteer inside her home church, First Baptist Church, Cumming, Georgia.