Kids Books and Visuals for Children, Especially Those with Unique Learning Needs. A Review


While strolling through the exhibit hall during our denomination's 52nd General Assembly, I was delighted to meet Ashley Belknap, the Executive Director of our denominations Engaging Disability with the Gospel. Engaging Disability With The Gospel has been equipping churches to disciple and enfold kids, teens, and adults with disabilities—helping the whole body of Christ grow stronger, more connected, and more faithful to God’s call, and our congregation has become part of their network.

But what made this meeting much more exciting is that I was able to see the types of visual learning curricula that they are making available through their publishing branch, Simply the Gospel. Ashley happily loaded me down with all of the samples you can see in the picture at top. Everything from the Children's First Catechism, to visual prompts parents can use during worship, and on to books and visual prompts to help the kids learn the Lord's Prayer, the Doxology, and more.

The material comes in various sizes. The Catechism spiral books are large enough to need to be given out in three glossy volumes. All the rest are small enough each one can be held in a single hand. The prompt cards are meant to help the kids, especially those with unique learning needs, to work out recall, and participation in worship.

Ashley Belknap has edited the hymn series that was put together by LC Sinclair. And she has the main force behind the Catechism books and others. She has enlisted the graphic design help of Rachel Unglesby, as well as the illustration help of Kara Whittaker and Rachel Erickson. It has been a team effort.

Much of the curricula has "suggestions" inside it's pages to help the teachers/parents use the material. And the illustrations show kids of different ethnic backgrounds, sexes, and abilities (some in wheel chairs or wearing glasses, for example). I have shown all of this material to my Christian Education team, Nursery Director, and leader of our congregations Engaging Disability initiative that we're calling Thrive! To a person, they found the material very appealing and are sure it will be useful for all of our children, including those with unique learning needs. I freely and happily commend their material to you. Check out their publishing branch, Simply the Gospel, and see the wealth of resources that are available.

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