Summer Kinard's Blog, page 12

Autism Homeschool Resources – Fall 2017

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We start our homeschool year in September here at St. Nektarios Academy (our school name), but a lot of people have asked me what we use and how we use it. This is a brief overview of some of the most helpful tools we use in our homeschool, with affilate links to Amazon where they are available.

Curricula

Our curriculum is not typical. We teach in a project/interest-based pattern, with a few core focuses. Much of what we teach is by means of the white boards in our kitchen rather than from books, but here are some of the books or series we use:

Social Thinking books . In our house, covering academic areas is not very difficult. We spend a lot of time focusing on building skills that will help our autistic children self-regulate and function to their highest ability. Social thinking is a big deal for our elementary aged children. The link is for the set we’re using this year, but the {Social Thinking website}  has resources for other ages as well. (In the link, ignore the silly overpriced “used” option and choose the $66 bundle from Social Thinking under “new.”)
Handwriting Without Tears This series starts with making shapes and has easy to follow workbooks through all grades. One of my children has moderate dysgraphia, and we have worked on the lower level books with him repeatedly, with great progress. Another worked through one book and has perfectly neat handwriting.
Explode the Code This phonics program is fun and adaptable. We’ve gone through it all the way with one of our children, and we’re going back through to highlight missed or forgotten skills.
YouTube videos explaining topics of interest, especially the Crash Course Kids and Crash Course series. We like to look up National Geographic and NASA series, as well as several channels put on by science teachers and parents (like TheDadLab and SmarterEveryDay). I don’t let the children go on YouTube unsupervised EVER, even with our safe browsing settings and white list and strong “clean” firewall settings, because it’s vulnerable to occasional perverse images showing up in playlists. But as long as you are paying attention, YouTube is awesome. Video modeling is one of the {Evidence-based practices }that we know works for children with autism, and a lot of times it’s easier for my kids to learn from a video on repeat than from me in person. (I even video myself sometimes so they’ll find the video “me” predictable enough to learn.)
The Orthodox Study Bible and the Orthodox Children’s Bible Reader . My husband reads a chapter each night to the older children before their bedtime stories. We also read The Beginner’s Bible to the preschoolers. Our homeschool is registered as a religious school in our state, and we put our years of advanced theological study into our teachings with the children. (Note: We like science and do not see it as conflicting with our faith. If you have an objection to standard science, you might want to screen the Crash Course science resources differently than we might.)
Handwriting composition books : The older children have to write a certain number of pages of story each week. I like these notebooks because they have the line guides as well as a space above for illustrations, which my older children love to provide.
Creative Writing For Kids has great tips on prompts that make it easy for kids to respond.

Manipulables
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This is by far the most significant part of our teaching methods. We use them in therapy, for teaching our dyslexic son, and for just about every other type of learning.

Hape Alphabet Puzzles:  Many of you have messaged me about these blocks. We have 5 or 6 sets, both upper and lower case. We also have a couple of sets of numbers from their number puzzle and number set. These three-dimensional wooden letter blocks help my son with dyslexia understand letters spatially. We build on his strength of spatial understanding to start to see words as shapes. We also use them in therapy for my youngest son, who loves to spell. Note: Make sure to buy the Hape brand, because the letters and numbers from the puzzles are made to stand up on their own.
Alphabet magnets. We use them for spelling practice and to redirect my autistic children’s impulse to line things up into a functional, phonetic purpose. Why these? They have a completely magnetic back and have proved more durable than other brands. The Mudpuppy magnets come in other patterns as well, but I have linked to the least expensive version, which also has slightly larger letters.
Learning Resources Magnetic Money  Sometimes I write on the whiteboards with this money alongside, and sometimes we pile it up on the kitchen table. It’s harder to lose than the fiddly pretend coins and paper, and I can put it up high or away easier.
Mathlink Counting Cubes  We have a few sets of these for counting sets, working on apraxia, scooping, and pretend/creative play. These don’t vacuum up easily, and they’re easy to store.
Plastic puzzle pieces . We have some motor planning challenges, and these help overcome them. The kids like to design tools out of the pieces, and gain strength and pattern recognition when they use them. Also, the kids like to make cool looking swords and crowns with them sometimes.
Wooden blocks. We have plain blocks (great for polishing), HABA and Hape blocks, and some classic alphabet blocks. I recommend that you spend a little extra for HABA blocks and products in general if you are running a special needs homeschool, because they replace parts that are damaged. That’s a big deal when you have kids who don’t have especially great motor planning.
Duplo and Lego bricks and sets. I love the educational Duplo sets, such as the multi-cultural people and the emotions set. We use Duplo and Lego for teaching math, and Duplo bricks feature heavily in a lot of our religious education (Duplo church, set building for Bible stories).

Sensory and Craft Supplies

We go through so many of these things!

Mad Mattr (or kinetic sand): This is a stiffer, easier to clean up version of kinetic sand. We use it to sculpt and scoop and play cook. It’s a bit pricey, so you might use your teacher discount/coupons to pick some up at a local craft store if it’s available there.
Glitter glue, the large Elmer’s bottles. Squeezing out pretty glue helps our kids with motor planning and apraxia issues.
Drawing paper and construction paper and white copy paper. We make lists, write out words for matching with blocks, glue and tape and cut and draw. I pick up large packets of paper a few times a year for our crew. The rule is that the kids are allowed to display a drawing, but another one has to come down when they do. I also photograph their work sometimes for record-keeping, then recycle or trash all the scribbled and used paper once every couple of days. An autism house does not have time for giant piles of discarded paper!
Kid paint. We use the Crayola brand because the little jars are so easy to store, but we also buy zinc oxide and corn starch in bulk to make our own indoor/outdoor paint from time to time. If you make your own paint, add a few drops of dish soap to make it washable.
Crayons. We have the fancy beeswax blocks and sticks, but mostly we go through dozens of Crayola 24 pack crayons. I like to pick up 50¢ boxes at back-to-school sales this time of year at my local stores.
Handy Scoopers: These are great for our children with motor planning challenges and apraxia.
Beeswax polish: This smells nice, is non-toxic, and provides a useful task for my children who don’t like busy work therapies. The kids can rub this polish into their wooden blocks or into our kitchen spoons. We build on their interest and the actions to expand their functional and emotional language and to help them develop life skills.
Gluten free play dough: My hands break out if I even touch wheat or soy, so we go to great lengths for play doughs. I’ve heard great things about {this recipe}, though I haven’t had a chance to make it. We also like the{ Aroma Dough sets}, though they are expensive.
Gluten free sidewalk chalk: If you have a gluten sensitive child who eats non-foods, you need {this chalk from Colorations}. Besides plain white chalk, it’s the only kind that doesn’t include wheat.
Gluten free dough tools: If you find Playdoh sets on sale, buy them and donate the wheat-filled Playdoh to your OT to use with kids who aren’t gluten sensitive. The advantage to Playdoh sets is that they’re available and often on sale at your local discount store. I also buy rollers, play dough face pieces, and alphabet dough cutters from Discount school supply or {from Amazon}. If you aren’t gluten sensitive, be aware that LOTS of people on the autism spectrum are, so you might want to accommodate that need in playdates.

Macro-Life Helps

Continuing Education for Mom (The Head Teacher in our homeschool): I have attended some training conferences and read the books and websites recommended by my children’s therapists. This year, I’m hoping to add more training, support groups, and a graduate certificate in autism studies. Get a great overview and directory of autism best practices HERE.
PBS Kids shows. Daniel Tiger, Sesame Street, SuperWhy, how we love thee! These educational shows teach self-regulation skills and provide skills modeling. We also like several of the others, but not, if I’m honest, Cailou, who is persona non grata for his whining and boringness. (Your mileage may vary.)
Indoor hammock. We have an indoor hammock and a rocking chair in the largest bedroom so the children can self-soothe. An indoor swing might serve a similar purpose if your house is proportioned well for one.
HABA play tent: This is a great away space for our littles who need to have a sensory soothing time. The aqua color helps, but best of all, HABA will replace the tent poles if your kids break them. My littles loved the first set of tent poles to death, but the tent was in great shape. I filled out their online form, and I had a new, free set of poles in about 6 weeks. Meanwhile, four other, not-HABA tents have been worn to shreds. Quality shows.
Outdoor sensory playground with sandbox, slide, water play, and giant tractor tires for therapeutic play/following directions.
Simple organizational systems that are easy to fix and hard to break. We have labeled rolling carts for shoes and a family closet. It’s much more efficient to toss shoes into a bin or to sort and put away clothes right by the laundry machines! The kids can help easier, and when they can’t, the adults save time.
Amazon Subscribe & Save and Pantry for bulk orders of gluten free foods. Not all families with autism have to go gluten free, but it happens that a few of us have wheat allergy and gluten intolerance. We also rely on Amazon Prime for buying books and streaming music and some shows. (I watch Fixer Upper on Amazon video while I do the laundry.)
In-home Library. My kids are rough on books (eating due to sensory issues, tearing on accident due to motor planning issues), so we buy a lot of books to use at home. We have lots of books for the sake of the rhythm of the words, but even more for the beauty of pictures and story together. Just because language is a challenge, does not mean our kids do not crave it. Picture books help.
White boards in the kitchen. We can teach with drawings, place magnetic shapes and money and letters for examples, and keep track of our wishes and to-do lists, besides the convenient math problem solving space. We buy the large ones on sale at back-to-school time and afix them to the walls and backs of doors.
In-home therapy. I can’t tell you how invaluable our therapists are to helping the three children in therapy function and thrive. We have an SLP and an OT over twice a week to work with our middle three children. This is the biggest homeschool cost, with our insurance co-pays in the thousands of dollars, but it is also the largest value per dollar. With so many children on the autism spectrum and their accompanying sensory needs, carting the children to therapy would be extremely difficult.

Click to view slideshow.

 

Church Bag Tour

I’ve had several people ask me about the supports we take to help our children through church. Watch my tour in the video above. Below, I link the sources for the main items in the bag. The Amazon links are affiliate links, so I will receive ad revenue if you shop through them (though the cost to you is the same). Etsy links are not affiliate, though I own the Awetism shop for the visual schedule and Bible study core vocabulary board. Remember that you can find all of my free printables linked on my {Special Needs Resources tab}!

Silicone slap bracelets  (aff)
Snug earmuffs (aff)
Prayer rope (aff)
Therapy brushes (aff)
What Do You See at Liturgy? board book
What Can I Do At Divine Liturgy? board book
Visual Schedule for Divine Liturgy
Bible Study and Sunday School Vocabulary Board

What’s in YOUR church bag?

Bible Study and Sunday School Vocabulary Board

If you have a concrete thinker or a child with complex communication needs, the thought of studying the Bible in a meaningful way might seem like out of reach. This board will help.

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A core vocabulary set is bordered by a picture of Jesus, a picture of the Bible, and a spiral-bound set of key vocabulary words that will allow you to tell the most common Bible stories included in children and youth Sunday school curricula. “Bible words” panels picture nouns, “Bible actions” picture verbs, and “Bible descriptions” picture adjectives. The Bible vocabulary panels allow you to tell the parables, many of the miracle stories, and the most common Old Testament Bible stories. The core panel allows for instructions such as “turn the page,” as well.  

You’ve seen the visual schedules for church services, which come from the world of occupational therapy. This Core Vocabulary board is one of the interventions from the world of speech therapy that is proven to work.  It builds understanding and use of language when adults model language while pointing to the pictures on the page and in the add-on page sections. Over time, even kids who cannot talk will gain a better ability to understand language and even to communicate using this method.

Here’s a tour of the board:

Like any form of communication, it takes time to become fluent. But the good news is that this method works.

Later this summer, I will add a complete autism-friendly Sunday school curriculum to my shop, including this Bible Study Core Vocabulary Board. This Bible Study Core Vocabulary Board can be used with any curriculum or in your classroom, youth group, or family Bible studies.

Download the Free Printables here:

Bible Study Core Communication Base
Sunday School CORE add ons
Bible words CORE
Need a Break Badges

To construct the Bible Study Core Board if you do not have a laminator and spiralizer, I recommend printing the pages onto cardstock, cutting out the add-ons, and affixing them with tape. It is my hope that by providing this resource for free, all children and families (even those without access to adequate speech therapy) can use this resource to build upon their other communication strategies.

A completed version of this Bible Study Vocabulary Board is available in my Awetism Etsy shop.

In Christ,

Summer

Did you know that I’m writing a book that will help churches understand and welcome families with special needs? If you follow this blog and/or {my Facebook page} and {Instagram}, you can help me show a publisher that people need a book like that.

All visual schedules of church services, along with other special needs resources for church, are available in a fully prepared format at my {Awetism Etsy shop}.

Return to Your First Love: On Heart Prayer

I try to go to God with an open hand. In birth-giving, your hands are vital to the process. As the hand, so the hidden places. So the heart.

I want an open heart before God, but flies sometimes fall into my little cup of trembling.

I will try to pray, and a thought will occur to me that I ought to apologize. “I’m sorry for the wrong I did,” is an ok prayer. “I’m sorry that I exist as an offense in the universe,” is evil.

If I let that thought linger, I put the weight of all my loves and life and joys and fears and accomplishments onto the back of that fly- the cumulative tons of dust and papers and medals and smiles and popsicles shared when some of us had just lost a tooth, the detritus of paper clips and cast off diapers and worn out clothes, the dogs I’ve buried though they made me smile, the trees that fell in my winters and every bright herb I’ve planted and tucked into the ground along with my dead – and it drops, with me, the interminable distance between heaven and hell.

The Fly Rodeo is a nasty business. I sometimes spoon myself out of it with the silver of psychology: You’re an introvert. This is not a spiritual crisis, not really. It’s a need for quiet.

More often, I have to pour out the whole cup. I grab a holy image and sob. I cry for the plight of my children and for the sad fact that I am inadequate as their mother but I love them so much but not enough and I’m sorry I am not a better person and how painful it is to be so broken and so —the babble flows away with the last of my thoughts.

I feel the deep ache of sadness that has been my birthright.

I tilt my head onto the unseen shoulders surrounding me and nod my head into their “shhhh.” It is only pain. It’s a reasonable grief. But it is only pain, not a threat. I am sore from always fighting. I have landed blows on demons but my pain is not a demon. It is healing. It is thirst and hunger and the first words of a prayer to make things right.

I quiet to its throb and listen. My hands relax. Decision fatigue has plagued me, but now I let go of decisions and wait.

“Return to your first love,” I hear. I knit my brows, recognizing the words from the Revelation, directed toward the Church at Ephesus. I shrug. It’s a spiritual shrug. “Okay,” I say aloud. Subtext: this is on you, Lord. What are you talking about?

I say the Jesus Prayer a few times, but I stop short. “Shhhh.”

What’s my first love?

My heart is ringing the way lights ding when you turn them on. (Do neurotypical people notice this? Listen to them. They sound.) I am asking a better question now. What’s my first love?

I think of how many years I’ve tried to say the Jesus Prayer because I’ve been told so often it’s The Way of Prayer. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” I can breathe the prayer in English and Greek. I can pray it walking and eating and crocheting. But it has only been a vine on the outside of me, not the supporting beam.

The prayer my heart has always sung is smaller/larger/simpler/louder/quieter. It’s the angel song I heard at night as a child and learned to sing when it was the only light. “Holy, holy, holy.” “Agios, agios, agios.” “Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh.”

When I pray “holy,” I believe it with all my heart. I believe it in every part of the world, ground and sky and enemy and friend and child and husband, breath and dust and leaf. It is all I know.

I hear Sanctus singing to me from every direction, in the bend of wrists and tired ankles and pulsing in the air like moisture, the pnevma of the ancients, the substance of life. Sanctus pulls together the three fingers to make the sign of the cross. It is in the prayer rope and the candles and the icons and the priest and the sand and the pillars and the lignin scented books.

Holy is the malted barley scent of my middle child’s head.

Holy is the hot bath and a decision made.

Holy, the haunted woman standing with her cardboard sign beside me.

Holy, the birds my daughter loves. Holy, my daughters.

Holy, the delicate grasp of my youngest son’s fingers, and holy his unknown strength.

Holy, the graves of my fathers and the lines on my mother’s face.

Holy the box fan that stirs the hot rooms of my memory till I can make out angels there. (The bedsheets there are sundried cotton, and they smell like angels now, too.)

Holy, child in my arms, and holy our hearts beating.

Holy the grubby struggle.

Holy God. Holy Mighty. Holy Immortal, Kyrie eleison.

“Shhh.”

Holy?

“Holy.”

Thriving At Mass

I’m honored that the Visual Schedule for the Mass was included in this family’s Mass Kit for their child with ASD. If you’re wondering what sort of practical steps you can take to help keep your child settled in a church service, read this!

A Thinking Love

We finally are at a point after a lot of behavioral therapy and maturation that we can go to Mass together and actually thrive there, versus “just surviving”. For most people, going to Mass requires no special planning or anything like that. For us, it involved only being able to attend certain parishes, at certain times of the liturgical year, making sure we had an escape in case of meltdowns, and more. Add in dirty looks and the like and I don’t find myself surprised when many families that have special kids just simply stop coming.

The biggest issue for our ASD kiddo was the fact that this child felt extremely overwhelmed by being in any church with high ceilings (spoiler alert, that’s pretty much all of them). This child would have panic attacks and feel like they were going to float up to the ceiling. And then fall back…

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St. Mary of Egypt and the myth of “I Could Never”

So many of us parents with special needs hear “I could never” from supportive friends. Here is an insightful response by Maura Oprisko, with the help of St. Mary of Egypt.

The Least of These

St. Mary of Egypt is probably my favorite saint. I was instantly sucked into her story in a way I absolutely could not explain, especially because as a convert, I was a little squeamish about the idea of connecting with any particular saint to begin with. But immediately when I read her life, I openly wept these, like, super emotional tears.

I had no idea why. It’s not as if I found anything at all in common with her (I spent my youth as a very good little girl; St. Mary was a prostitute. Then I did what everyone my age was doing–got married and had babies; she abandoned her whole life and lived in repentance in the desert). But now, seven or eight years later, I understand.

Sometimes the saints single you out, and, since they live outside time, can say before we do–Ah, yes. I know you; I know this struggle…

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Spiritual Self Caretaking

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My desk tonight with some of my icons and some of the books I’m reading. 

Decision fatigue is probably the hardest part of being a special needs parent, followed by the stress of constant vigilance. I hear people tell me that I should “take care of myself,” and that I should pray, and I see the images they invoke: a woman getting a massage or pedicure or going on a long hike by herself without getting attacked or falling into a ravine, who, after the rigorous hike or relaxing massage during which she did not worry that her children with nonverbal autism were overwhelming their caregivers and cutting a path of destruction through the house out of anxiety over her absence, or just out of the salon and smelling chemical-fresh, will make some 40 prostrations in an ornate chapel by the light of oil lamps, her face glowing beatifically as saints and angels light her way with their wisdom flashlights. The stressed out woman in the advice has a full-time staff who cooks and cleans, and her children somehow never trash the entire house at least five times a day because they’re learning about gravity and don’t understand object permanence.

Deep breaths. Feeling centered?

You know, moms with special needs kids, you need to get out more. Have a glass or two of wine, and laugh with all the friends who are willing to adjust to your bizarre schedule and decision fatigue and unpredictable family that makes planning hard and stay within five minutes of your house and talk about something other than how competitive they are about their neurotypical children and their stressful lives of hiking and baking. Those people get out every week, if not every day, and they have forgotten you already, which is why you get out once or twice a year, maybe. Except, if you do go out with other people somehow, don’t drink the wine at all because you might need to be up with a child for several hours in the middle of the night, or God forbid, you might need to go to the doctor/hospital, and you need your wits about you. Besides which, you don’t want to turn into an alcoholic on top of all the other things you have to deal with. You don’t have time to love wine. You have time to love cold deli meats and gluten free crackers over the sink. You have time to go to a park with a fence and keep people from running into the street every time a neurotypical family shows up and leaves the gate open.

Moms of kids with special needs never read their daily prayers and scriptures on the toilet because it’s the only room the toddlers sometimes don’t break into. This mom whom you advise to pray more and to take care of herself never sits on the toilet in her prayer corner and simultaneously hugs a crying preschooler who thought she was gone forever when she shut the door and he heard the water running, potentially whooshing her away.

She doesn’t have her best prayers at 2am when she still hasn’t managed to get to bed, and her child needs to be squeezed so he can find his little hands and feet and go back to sleep, and the lullaby is “Agni Parthene” (a hymn to the Virgin Mary) or the Trisagion, and he hums along, spelling nonsense words under his breath. “C-A-N-A,” he says, referencing the first miracle. “Water!” Well, almost, little one. He is half asleep, and sleep spelling has different syntax. There is no glowing face here, but he gets warm and heavy and starts to breath the soft song of sleep. She thanks the saints and angels who helped make that happen.

She kisses the Panagia icon by the light of her cellphone and reads about a saint with one eye, on a phone app dimmed so as not to wake the other occupants of the bed. By the time she reads the Gospel for the day, that one eye has a slow blink, and the first birds are thinking of waking up already. She drops the phone on her eye and brushes it under her pillow, the images of the Lord’s words burned onto her left retina: Come to me all you who are heavy laden.

She lights candles and forgets what she was doing while she watches them burn. When she comes back to herself, she sighs and shakes her head. “I’m like the thief, Lord,” she says to Jesus. “I know better and I still do stupid things. I’m scared and dumb, but I want to be with you.” She knows she’s supposed to be teaching her kids all kinds of words and prayers, but mostly she hopes they catch her gritty snapping turtle faith. You don’t have to be eloquent to ask for mercy.

Someone cries, and she rushes to soothe them. The baby won’t stop yelling to come downstairs, but she’s changing someone else’s diaper. The house is louder than the Seraphim hollering in the Temple, “holy, holy, holy,” and she thinks of God’s hem filling the whole room and the glory of God overflowing over the whole world, and how on earth is that baby putting out so many decibels when she’s only 2?

She tries to think good thoughts even though sometimes she binge watches superhero shows on Netflix just to see people fix things in under an hour. Strength in adversity is glamorous when it doesn’t involve housekeeping. She hopes that next time when she picks up all the paints and toys and blankets from the floor and says to herself, “behavior is communication,” that the mess cleaning will inspire love.

She will go to the children who wreck the house and never stop shouting because they don’t understand volume control yet, and she will kiss their heads. Their hair smells like incense. They’re the burning bushes surrounding her tired, bare feet. She will sniff the sour smell of their sweaty heads after their summertime naps, and she will say, “This is holy ground.”

 

Church Social Conversation Board

Not feeling like part of the church social scene is one of the worries people mention most frequently to my co-author* Charlotte Riggle and me.

How can people who are nonverbal or have slower language processing participate in a coffee hour, a potluck, or lemonade on the porch? How can someone let you know their needs when the room is so loud? What does a person have to do to get a chair? What about special food needs, which often accompany special needs life?

To help alleviate these woes, I have put together a Church Social Conversation Board. It’s suitable for use by one person (e.g., me pointing to the symbols to speak to you), in partnership (e.g., me modeling the board’s use and helping guide my son through the board so he can communicate), and for conversations in the visual medium (e.g., me pointing to phrases and you responding by pointing to other phrases). My hope is that the summer months will be a good time to phase in this extra layer of welcome for families with special needs.

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Welcome families with autism and other special needs into your church social life with this double-sided conversation board. Free printable on Summer Kinard writinglikeamother.com, or fully prepared set of two double-sided boards in the Awetism Etsy shop.

Download this free printable here for non-commercial use:

church social page 1
church social page 2

I recommend laminating the sheets together so that the board is one page front and back, for the sake of portability and ease of use. Sets of two fully prepared full color, heavy duty laminated Church Social Conversation Boards are also available in the Awetism Etsy shop.

 

*Did you know that I’m writing a book that will help churches understand and welcome families with special needs? If you follow this blog and/or {my Facebook page} and {Instagram}, you can help me show a publisher that people need a book like that.

Visual Schedule for the Episcopal Church Eucharist Rite Two

Just in time for summer travel, I’ve prepared a visual schedule for the Eucharistic Prayer Rite Two of the Episcopal Church. This schedule follows the usual, not the penitential order, and it is suitable for use with Prayer A, B, C, and D. Download the free printable version below, or you can purchase a set of two full color, heavy duty laminated schedules from my Awetism Etsy shop. For other free special needs church resources, visit my Special Needs Resources page.

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Free download of a visual schedule for the Episcopal Church Eucharistic Prayer Rite Two. Help children with autism, learning and attention impairments, and sensory processing disorder stay in church services with this useful tool tailored to the order of service. 

Why visual schedules?

Autism makes thinking different. To stay in church, a stable visual cue set can help a great deal. A visual schedule of the order of service provides social cues in a static way so that a person with autism does not have to work so hard to isolate them and process them. It also gives an easy to reference order of actions, so that one can plan one’s movements ahead of time and with less anxiety.

 

Download the free Visual schedule in PDF here:

Episcopal Visual Schedule Rite 2

In Christ,

Summer

Did you know that I’m writing a book that will help churches understand and welcome families with special needs? If you follow this blog and/or {my Facebook page} and {Instagram}, you can help me show a publisher that people need a book like that.

All visual schedules of church services, along with other special needs resources for church, are available in a fully prepared format at my {Awetism Etsy shop}.

Visual Schedule for Roman Catholic Mass

Why visual schedules?

Autism makes thinking different. To stay in church, a stable visual cue set can help a great deal. A visual schedule of the order of service provides social cues in a static way so that a person with autism does not have to work so hard to isolate them and process them. It also gives an easy to reference order of actions, so that one can plan one’s movements ahead of time and with less anxiety.

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Free download of visual schedule for Mass. Help children with autism and sensory processing disorders stay in church services with this useful tool tailored to the order of service.

After seeing the enormous difference the {Orthodox Church Liturgy visual schedule} has made in so many families’ lives, I realized that I wanted to share this resource with Christians in other churches. Because many of my relatives and most Christians in the world are Roman Catholic, I have prepared a visual schedule for the Roman Catholic Mass. I hope that this free resource will help many, many families to attend church services. 

To use a visual schedule, I recommend laminating it or placing the pages in heavy duty page protectors after printing. Stickers go in each box to the right of the schedule item, as the service progresses. Alternatively, a marker may be used to check off progress.

Download the free Visual Schedule in PDF here:

Roman Catholic Mass Visual Schedule

In Christ,

Summer

Did you know that I’m writing a book that will help churches understand and welcome families with special needs? If you follow this blog and/or {my Facebook page} and {Instagram}, you can help me show a publisher that people need a book like that.

All visual schedules of church services, along with other special needs resources for church, are available in a fully prepared format at my {Awetism Etsy shop}

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Full color, heavy-duty laminated versions of the Roman Catholic Mass visual schedule are available for purchase at $5 US in the Awetism Etsy store. The images are not copyrighted by Summer Kinard, but they cannot be reproduced for commercial purposes. The Awetism store charges only for preparation. You are free to use the Mass schedule from this site as long as you do not resell it.

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