Sensory Bible Stories

  Photo by Jonah Pettrich on Unsplash 'He tends his flock like a shepherd: 'He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young' Isaiah 40:11  This verse struck me a few weeks ago as I prepared to meet and share the gospel with children and young people with additional needs on the coming Sunday morning.  The last phrase, in particular, stuck out 'He gently leads those that have young'. I find this promise really reassuring. While the children and young people we support may not be the youngest members of our church family, they may be some of our most vulnerable. I've been using this verse to pray for myself and for those I serve alongside caring for and teaching these most precious members of our flock. Isaiah 40 is essentially a promise from God to rescue His people. Ultimately it points to our rescue by Jesus, the Good Shepherd. It's comforting that in the middle of this big promise God remembers t...

Thinking about the new creation with a tuff tray of balloons and blocks  We started a Bible overview series of sensory stories in early 2020. I grieved the many Sundays in 2020 where we had to put it on hold and rejoiced in 2021 when we finally completed it.  We based this series on 'The Garden, The Curtain and The Cross' . I'd come across the paperback version previously and thought that it looked like a good resource but was especially excited to see that it had also been published as a board book. As lots of us know finding resources to bring the gospel story to life for children and young people with additional needs isn't often easy. While 'The Garden, The Curtain and The Cross' hasn't been written (as far as I'm aware) with children and young people with additional needs in mind and hasn't been marketed for this group specifically, there's a number of reasons why I really enjoyed using it in this ministry It doesn't feel 'baby-ish...

       Setting up! I wanted to share some resources that we’ve used at Church in the run up to Easter. We were able to run our ministry for children and young people with additional needs under covid-19 restrictions as a support group. It was joyous. For three weeks we played and listened to truths about Jesus coming on a donkey as our King and rescuer. We celebrated like the people on Palm Sunday with balloons and bubbles and a sound button which said ‘Hosanna’. We played with dusty flour and soap and water and some of us even washed our feet as we talked about Jesus washing His friends’ feet. Because He loved them and He loves us. We admired an Easter garden and heard about Mary’s joy at meeting her resurrected friend Jesus in the garden. It had been a long time since we had met together so although I’ve included plans for sensory stories in the resources below our sessions had more of a free-play feel and we didn’t include a structured story time each week. We s...

  The first disclaimer about this story is that I’ve never actually run it. At least I’ve not run it with any children and young people with additional needs. I ran it by myself during the Summer of 2020 when we were still doing church from home. I filmed it and made a video where I talked parents through how they could run it with their children. You can see it here if you’re interested. In 2020 when sending resources to families (sensory story templates, videos, practical prayer ideas, etc) I gave the disclaimer that if they try running this in their living room at home, it won’t look like it does in my living room. With children and young people with additional needs around the script doesn’t often always get followed. At home there’ll be unlimited distractions from toys to technology, siblings to pets, the smell of food from the kitchen or the sound of a lawn mower outside. It can be discouraging when sharing the gospel with children or young people with additional needs do...

  We talked in this story about our favourite foods, homemade pizza might be mine! I often feel a burden to pray for the children around me. I think all of us who spend time alongside children and young people in schools, churches, and out in the community experience this. For children with additional needs especially there seems to be an endless supply of issues to worry about on their behalf, their development, their health, their family, their happiness, their access to education indeed their access to anywhere. I’ve often felt an overwhelming sense of concern for the families and children whom I encounter. Occasionally it has presented itself as a sense of real despair or fear. When I remember these words from Philippians I know I can and I should bring all these worries to God, Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard ...

There are so many occasions where the sensory story we’ve run on a particular week feels coincidently relevant to my life or to something happening in the wider world. The story of John the Baptist might be my favourite example of this. We ran this story in September 2020 on the first week which we were able to meet after over six months of churches been closed due to covid-19 restrictions. Our mainstream children’s and youth ministries were both studying Mark that term so I searched that gospel for something which might lend itself to being turned into a sensory story. John the Baptist with his honey and locust-based snacks, his itchy clothes and straggly hair and his connection to water seemed to fit the bill. I was so excited to be able to come back to church in person and to be able to share Bible stories with the children and young people in our group once again. We were aware of how difficult the preceding months had been for those with additional needs and their families and i...

  Welcome to Sensory Bible Stories! My  name is Helen and I live in North London. I’ve  been working with children, teenagers and young adults with autism and learning disabilities for 10+ years, I’ve been listening to and learning about the story of the gospel for 30+ years! I’ve been challenged in the last few years to find ways  to share the wonderful good news of the gospel with children and young people with additional needs. I run a small group at my church in ( St James Muswell Hill )  for children and young people with additional needs who have taught me so much about how to experience the gospel in a tangible way. Anecdotally it seems that children with additional needs, particularly those with a diagnosis of a learning disability and/or autism, are under-represented in the Church in the UK. It's difficult to find statistics to back this up (if anyone has any please let me know) but to give some context there are approximately 351,000 children livi...