Have you ever faced the challenge of attending community events with a child who has special needs? Our latest conversation sheds light on the struggles and triumphs of including these wonderful children in church services, festivals, and more. We delve into the reasons why families with children on the autism spectrum or other disabilities might hesitate to participate in these gatherings, from the lack of adequate resources to fears of disruptive behavior. This episode is a heartfelt exploration of what it takes to create truly inclusive environments and how we can all contribute to making this a reality.
Join us as we share actionable advice for parents preparing their children for social interactions, such as establishing dinner table routines, and discuss how community members can advocate for changes. We also explore the possibilities of partnering with local colleges to provide trained volunteers for events, ensuring that every child, regardless of their needs, has the opportunity to enjoy and engage in community and spiritual life. It's a call to action for each of us to play a role in enriching the lives of children with special needs—let's make a difference together.
Have you ever faced the challenge of attending community events with a child who has special needs? Our latest conversation sheds light on the struggles and triumphs of including these wonderful children in church services, festivals, and more. We delve into the reasons why families with children on the autism spectrum or other disabilities might hesitate to participate in these gatherings, from the lack of adequate resources to fears of disruptive behavior. This episode is a heartfelt exploration of what it takes to create truly inclusive environments and how we can all contribute to making this a reality.
Join us as we share actionable advice for parents preparing their children for social interactions, such as establishing dinner table routines, and discuss how community members can advocate for changes. We also explore the possibilities of partnering with local colleges to provide trained volunteers for events, ensuring that every child, regardless of their needs, has the opportunity to enjoy and engage in community and spiritual life. It's a call to action for each of us to play a role in enriching the lives of children with special needs—let's make a difference together.
Hi everyone, I hope you had a blessed weekend. I was just wondering if you did anything special this weekend. Did you go to an event or maybe to a festival or farmers market Church this morning? And if so, did you take your kids? Did you take your child that's on the spectrum with you? And if not, why not? So we're gonna talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 1:
One of the things that I've noticed when there's events or church and they have childcare or Sunday school, that we don't see a lot of special-need kids, not just autism, but other things too deaf and hard of hearing, down syndrome, any kind of disability or our special needs. I want to say they don't seem to have Enough people to provide those kind of services for our children. Even I've even heard of daycares saying sorry, we cannot take your child, and it's kind of sad that we don't provide that Avenue. But we're gonna talk about some of the reasons why that we don't see that, and one of them is because when you're having a function like that and you usually have volunteers and those volunteers may not be trained To take care of kids with special needs that are on the autism spectrum. Churches and other functions have volunteers and so they're not always able to have people that are able to provide the correct service for our children. Another thing is, parents may be afraid of them disrupting their behavior, so they just don't bother to go, or they don't bother to take them or make arrangements for them to be at home. So I'm saying, how can we change that? How can we make that better for you to be able to do the things you want to do? Because being a parent and it doesn't matter if you're a grandparent, I'm talking about anybody that's taking care of a child with special needs or on the spectrum that they should be able to function in life and go to events without worrying about if there's going to be somebody for that person, for that child. So if you join a group, how can we make that change? I would say, bring it up to the people that are working there. If you're talking about a church, ask them about it. Ask if they can provide some type of service. Maybe you yourself could be head of that committee of getting people into having a special needs group.
Speaker 1:
Now why I'm saying that? I'm thinking to myself I should be doing that in my own church, but I haven't yet. It's a big commitment. There's no doubt about it. But wouldn't it be nice if, everywhere there's an event, there's a special place for our kids to learn and grow and have fun, and that's it? Just to have some fun and look forward to doing that.
Speaker 1:
I think that's a good goal to have and I think it's something that we could all together change and make it, because our kids should be able to listen to the word of God if they go to church or if they enjoy some type of event. Our kids should be able to do that too. A lot of times, if they don't have a lot of outbursts, I see parents take them with them and keep them right with them, but it would be nice if they could go and be with other kids that are also on the spectrum, that also have special needs, and that they could relate to and enjoy being with other kids. I know that it's kind of hard to get volunteers to do this, but another way we could do is like colleges that have educational programs. There's always students that need hours, and so that would be a great way to get students that are in the educational program to come in and volunteer and get their hours. It may not be something you can count on every week or so, but maybe you can do a rotation type thing and have the college students come into the church or Christian's college. You can have them come in and volunteer and work with our kids. There are ways that we can change that and I'm going to see about changing in my community. If I'm preaching it, I should be teaching it too. Anyway, that was one of the things that I mainly wanted to talk about.
Speaker 1:
Another thing is how do we get our kids ready to be able to function in different ways, like going to a restaurant or something like that and being around other people and other noises and stuff like that. The best way is start at home and at the dinner table. We don't have the dinner table, family dinners like we used to, and when I was growing up, everybody just was at the dinner table at night. We don't have that so much anymore and it's a little sad. I heard once that the number one furniture that is on the down grater, down size, is the dining room table. They don't sell as much as they used to anymore and we need to do that. We need to be at the dinner table without cell phones, without the TV, just sit I mean it don't take long for dinner when you're all sitting down, what 10 minutes, 15 minutes you're everybody's done eating and just sit and talk and make it a social event. The dinner table is the best way to do that.
Speaker 1:
Talk about your kids' day, talk about what happened, what your plans are for the weekend, whatever you want to talk about Just take a few minutes to just sit down and have a nice meal with your family. It's one of the most important things that we can do and we have lost that in America that we don't sit down at the dinner table anymore, and if you are one of them that do, god bless you because it is very important. You're doing a great service for your kids If you make that dinner time an important part where the family all sits down. So, being Sunday, I'm making this really short, so I hope you enjoyed it today. But think about what I said.
Speaker 1:
Think about the situation within our community and how we can get more people involved with our kids, not only for your sake, but for theirs too, but also for your sake.
Speaker 1:
You need to be able to function and go to different things and enjoy life without worrying maybe somebody coming into your house to help watch the kids or, you know, especially if they provide childcare. You have a right to have your children with you and to enjoy life to the fullest, and I hope that we can find ways in our community and I'll do some more research on that too to see if I can find other avenues that do. I did see on I think it was Facebook, where they have a camp for autism, but it was middle school and high school, and there's one. It's in different states, I think there's two in California, one in Florida where they're going to have summer camps for autistic kids, and I think that's fantastic. I was so pleased to see something like that for our kids. Well, anyway, have a blessed day and I hope you are enjoying the weekend and I will talk more later. Bye, bye.