The most effective and lasting way to teach is through how we arrange and prioritize spaces. The ancients knew this well, and they learned vast amounts of story, scriptures, and sermons by associating ideas with places that were familiar to them. In daily life, our movements around our homes, classrooms, work spaces, and churches teach us just as much as the lessons we might study in those places. This human way of learning in three dimensions is a wonderful asset for sharing the faith with children with disabilities, impairments, and neurodivergences. Unlike the speech or reading or heavily language-based ways of teaching that fail to engage the attention or enable the interaction of children with disabilities, this prayer corner is a meaningful way to…
writing, autism, & theology as a mother of joy
Posts from the “concrete thinking” Category
Spring is here! In my household, we’ve spent the past few weeks working hard to set up a garden. We’ve planted fruit trees and shade trees and dug beds for herbs and vegetables. Read to the end of the post for a free printable Garden Time vocabulary aid. When I was a girl growing up with undiagnosed autism, the garden was my refuge. I learned a lot of life and relationship skills because of my desire to grow things. I would find old women in their garden beds and ask them to help me figure out the difference between miracles and weeds. My friend Stepheny Houghtlin introduced me to the idea of “the long conversation that is English gardening.” While I garden in a…
Categories: advice, autism, concrete thinking, conversation, curriculum, family, food, garden, interview, Uncategorized
Feed The Parents: Lent for Families With Special Needs
Feature article
Summer Kinard
Posted on March 7, 2019
There’s no shortage of advice for how to give things up for Lent, how to read extra books for Lent, and how to eat simpler foods for Lent. But parents of children with special needs can’t use much of that advice. Instead, we have to resist these opportunities to overcommit by seeing them for what they are to us: opportunities to overextend our resources. This Lent, resist the temptation to overfunction. You’re a person who probably spends most of his or her time caring for your children or fretting over how to meet their needs. For you, overdoing it a bit is normal and often necessary. Don’t add anything to your to-do list unless it feeds you. How can you tell what will feed…
Categories: advice, christian, concrete thinking, encouragement, faith, Liturgical Season, Orthodox Faith, special needs child, spiritual formation, Uncategorized
Tagged: autism, Lent, parents, special needs
You’ve read about my experiences praying with PTSD in other posts, such as “The Discipline of Weeping” and “Return to Your First Love: On Heart Prayer.” If you’ve spoken with me in person, I probably talked about the way God heals us sidealong. It’s time that I start talking more about the hands-on ways that God has helped me heal from extensive childhood trauma. For that I’ve created a new series in my just-launched video podcast, Some Myrrh. It’s called, “The P is for Prayer,” and you can watch or listen to the first episode now. This one is for anyone who has ever felt “Shattered.”
Not every family is able to attend church over the Christmas holidays, but lots of us want to teach our children about the Nativity. I teamed up with my daughter to bring you a free Autism-Accessible Sunday School Lesson on the Nativity of our Lord. How is it autism-accessible? sensory rich images for focus video modeling of another child participating concrete examples of big ideas imitate it at home predictable: watch as often as you wish To make it even more accessible, use this video along with an in person telling of the Nativity story. Download the Nativity story photos from my post, “Holiday Tips for Making Christmas Easier for Special Needs Families,” and use them to sequence the story as you tell it.…
Holiday Tips for Making Christmas Easier for Special Needs Families
Summer Kinard
Posted on December 5, 2018
The feast of the Nativity approaches, and with it, anxiety. How will your family get along when everyone’s home? How will the kids do when you travel to visit relatives? Will you be welcomed at the church when you finally get a chance to go? For families with special needs, these questions are layered with the weight of additional needs. This week I’m sharing what I’ve learned from teaching and living with persons with special needs. Bookmark and share these best practices for home, travel, and church with special needs during the holidays. THE GIFT OF 12 DAYS Spread out gifts over 12 Days. Instead of subjecting sensitive family members -and let’s face it, lots of other folks, too!- to the overwhelm that comes…
“Do not worry, for the very hairs on your head are numbered.” I remember the first time I came across that verse. I was fascinated, in awe. My mother was in school to be a hair stylist, and I was around hair culture every day. I remember sneaking my mother’s hair styling manequin and trying to count the hairs. I kept losing track! Later, I remember telling children about this verse for the first time. There are some things that children know to be impossible: counting sand, stars, hairs, the number of times a sparrow drops to the ground to steal a crumb. We are small, and these things (stars excluded in actuality but not in appearance) are smaller, and we can’t keep track…
Tagged: Bible, God who sees, peace with autism
