Inclusion

Making children/young people with disabilities feel welcome

Focus on the child first, and then their disability
Welcome the child and their parents
Offer your friendship

What can you do to aid ‘best inclusion’?

It’s impossible to give you all the answers for every child you may encounter as there is not one way that will work for all. You will need to carefully and prayerfully consider how best to show God’s love to children who are very much individuals and look at how to make the activities accessible for them. Here are some ideas for best practice:

Gathering information from the parents/carers (or the child themselves) about the child – their likes/dislikes, particular abilities/difficulties etc. If parents/carers feel it is appropriate for you to contact their school you may also want to talk to the child’s teacher about the way they help the child to understand and maybe visit to see the way they do things.

Use this information to build up a brief description of the child that can be shown to those working with him/her. This should be relevant and positive. It should give you an idea if the child will find certain situations upsetting and allow you to take this into account when planning. For instance, sudden loud noise may be painful for some children and result in distress.

If the child and parents are happy with the idea, devise a way to allocate a ‘buddy’ to work with the children who need 1:1 help. This may mean drawing up a rota for helpers. Have consistency by keeping the number of adults rostered to help a particular child to a minimum, eg just two working alternate weeks. Or could the ‘buddy’ be another member of the group? Look at what will work in your situation for this individual in need of extra support.

Have some training on disability for those involved in children’s work.

Work as a team (children’s workers, helpers and parents) discovering and communicating what is and is not working.

It’s best, wherever possible, to include children in their peer group. Make sure you have enough helpers, not just the one assigned to the child with a disability.

Have a church policy on inclusion of those with disabilities.