One of the biggest challenges in inclusive ministry is meeting the needs of diverse learners. Today on the podcast, Sandra interviews Cortney Jenkins from Awe & Wonder and Laura Deeken from The Adapted Word about easy ways to make our lessons more accessible and about the resources they provide to help support every student in your ministry.
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Sandra Peoples: Welcome to episode 107 of Key Ministry, the podcast, and I am very excited to have two friends with me today. And we are chatting about accessible bible story instruction. Now, Cortney and Laura, were part of our conference in the spring, Disability & the Church (2024), and they did a workshop called From Hurdles to Hope: Research-based Approaches to Accessible Bible Story Instruction. I didn't get to attend a whole lot of workshops, but I got to come to this one and I learned a lot. And we just really wanted to make this conversation and the tools that they provide available to an even bigger audience. And so that's why I'm excited to have them as guests today on the podcast. And let me just mention that one of the reasons we're doing this in July is because we know that so many ministry leaders are thinking about the curriculum options that they want to use in the fall.
And so we are going to have lots of links in the show notes, everything that Cortney and Laura and I talk about today, you'll be able to find at keyministry.org/podcast. You can find the links and be able to easily access everything that we do. Isn't it funny, we talk about the kids being able to easily access things and then we take steps to try to make everything super accessible? So it's really fun to get to chat with you guys today. So I'm going to ask you first to introduce yourselves. This helps the listeners, especially because we're three ladies, to be able to tell our voices apart. So tell us who you are, a little bit about yourself and then the ministries that you represent. So Cortney, do you want to go first?
Cortney Jenkins: Absolutely. So I'm Cortney Jenkins and I'm a former special education teacher who now helps churches and families be able to teach the Bible to students, children and adults who have disabilities. I'm a pastor's wife. I live in North Carolina with my family and I serve in a lot of different roles at my church; administrative assistant work in women's ministry and our children's ministry leadership team. But my heart and passion is to combine my experience as a special education teacher with my passion for biblical literacy and to really be able to help churches and families be able to more effectively teach the Bible.
Sandra Peoples: Yeah, that's great. And you do that through...
Cortney Jenkins: Awe & Wonder.
Sandra Peoples: Awe & Wonder. Great. And go ahead and tell us the website now because that way they have it at the very top of the transcript when they see it.
Cortney Jenkins: So you can find Awe & Wonder at specialneedsministryresources.com.
Sandra Peoples: Okay, great. Alright. Cortney and I met at a, well, we knew each other online and then we met at a conference in person, and so I got to spend time with her in person even before just in the church. And so I'm thankful for our friendship and the resources that you provide. So Laura, you want to take a minute and introduce yourself?
Laura Deeken: Sure. My name is Laura Deeken. I'm from Texas, if you can't tell by my accent. I am a speech language pathologist. I've worked in the schools for 28 years. I put off volunteering with special needs at my church for many years, but when I did, it's all God's timing. God really made my speech and language therapy world and my church world collide. It became my passion. My church started asking for resources and God kind of grew it from there. And my hope is that I can help people know that you can start where you are. You can start with some easy strategies, like the way you talk with and listen to children with disabilities. And it doesn't have to be overwhelming to start disability ministry.
Sandra Peoples: That's great. And your website, that you put your resources on...
Laura Deeken: It is theadaptedword.com.
Sandra Peoples: Okay, great. And Laura and I got to meet because her family vacations close to where we live. And so was it last summer or the summer before?
Laura Deeken: It was last summer.
Sandra Peoples: She was coming through and so we got to meet and have dinner together. And so I got to know her even off of social media and before Disability & the Church (2024) conference happened. So that was really fun. Thank you for helping us make that connection so I could get to know you better. We have three questions we're going to go through, like three different categories of questions. We could go all kinds of different directions with these questions, but these are the three that we thought would be most helpful to you guys, the audience. And so we are excited to jump in. So our first question, and Laura, I'm going to ask you to lead off in the answer for this one. So the first question is, what challenges do students face at church and how do your tools help decrease those challenges and help us as ministry leaders reach our goal of teaching them the gospel?
Laura Deeken: Sure. I just think from being in the schools, which I am retired now, but from seeing the changes in the schools over time and seeing these kids come to church, I think there's more of an awareness of what children need. So that's a very good thing. Anytime we have more awareness, we can get to more solutions. So that's a very good thing. From just my observations, talking to others, we're looking at children who have some visible anxiety now and everybody has been through trauma now. Even kids when they were younger, now that we had the pandemic. So we're looking at that. We're looking at anxiety possibly that church is not first in their mind. Why are they there? Let's give them a reason to come and let's give them ways that they can learn, all children learn best when they're successful. I think one of the mistakes that I made when I first started working with kids at church was to give them too much information and it was to go, oh, I have learned all of this through my years at church and let me pour that all into you.
And that does not help children feel successful. We've got children with learning disabilities who need the language broken down, they need shorter sentences, they need church words like baptism and disciples explain. And once I kind of broke it down, then they feel successful. And when children feel successful, they're more willing to learn. So I think we're looking at kids with anxiety to the point that it interrupts their learning in their daily functioning. And also kids with, you said that maybe fly under the radar, they have some ADHD characteristics, they have characteristics of learning disabilities, but they're kind of making it. But they're struggling, so how can we make them feel successful?
Sandra Peoples: So a lot of really invisible disabilities, disabilities that we don't see. And we talk about that a lot in especially children's ministry because those are the students who are usually part of our typical children's ministry environments, but they just need extra help. Now my older son has dyslexia and so we have navigated that together and then we just have so many kids, especially ADHD, autism level one, anxiety, like you said, that's a lot. And I even think about the figurative language that we use like, "Ask Jesus into your heart," and how our very black and white logical kids are like, wait, what? That makes no sense. And so even just being aware of the language that we're using, like you said, not putting too much information on these kids all at the same time and then helping them help decrease that anxiety to help them feel successful.
Laura Deeken: Yes, and I think once they feel successful, they're more open to learning the gospel.
Sandra Peoples: Yeah, that's good. All right, Cortney, what challenges do you see students facing and how does what you create help decrease those challenges?
Cortney Jenkins: So I think we also are seeing a lot more students who have autism who have more moderate to significant disabilities. And a lot of times at church, our volunteers, our ministry leaders, we don't feel equipped for how to handle students who have more significant needs. And so there is specialized tools in special education that are designed and used to teach those students in the classroom, but we don't really have access to a lot of those tools in the church environment. And so really my passion is providing those tools to teach students who have moderate to significant disabilities in a specialized environment to be able to effectively teach them the Bible and use tools that we know are effective in special education classes and be able to make that application to teaching them the gospel.
Sandra Peoples: Yeah, that's really helpful. So I have a son with dyslexia, but I also have a son with level three autism who is mostly nonverbal. And so I in my family have this spectrum of needs at church. One kid is under a 504, the other kid's under an IEP. And so in order to be successful at school, they need accommodations. And in order to be successful at church, they need accommodations. And so absolutely so many kids with so many different diagnosis and it can feel overwhelming and intimidating. But part of this conversation today is to just help ministry leaders know that y'all are here to come alongside them and to offer the tools that they need and to help them be successful as they include kids with disabilities. So what about tools that maybe aren't specific to the lesson?
So at our church, we say that you qualify for the disability ministry if you need changes to the curriculum or to the environment in order to be successful. So all the diagnosis you guys are talking about and more fall under disability ministry because sometimes it is the curriculum that needs adjusting and sometimes it's the environment that needs adjusting and some of the tools that you guys provide helps adjust that environment too. So Laura, do you want to speak to a couple of things that you provide that would help change the environment and decrease anxiety in the classroom environment for kids?
Laura Deeken: Sure. Visual schedules are, I hesitate to call anything a magic wand, but visual schedules are very helpful. I learned about those in the schools, but we use them at church also. And so I do create some, I know Cortney does too, but I create with some church specific activities and that helps all kids just know, okay, what's coming up next? And I think for our children with disabilities, especially moderate to significant disabilities they think what they're doing that they enjoy is going to last forever or they think that whatever is going on that they don't like is going to last forever and we can help with that. If the worship songs are too loud and they need headphones, then the visual schedule shows them, oh, prayer time is coming up and it's going to be quiet. And so that just helps them manage their environment. And I also have some social stories which explain the environment. Kids with autism and kids with even some learning disabilities don't always pick up the social cues. It's the kids who don't get that figurative language, they don't look around and go, oh, everybody else is doing this, I can do that. And the social stories explain what's going on in an environment. It says worship may be loud if I need to escape, here's a safe place I can go to. So it doesn't tell them what to do, but it gives the expectations that they have options if they are feeling overwhelmed.
Sandra Peoples: Yeah, that's great. Even as an introvert, I like to know what's coming next. Something like if I'm going to a restaurant for the first time, I want to look at the menu ahead of time because I want to see what am I going to eat or where am I going to park? Is parking going to be easy or hard? So we just think of these things and think how much harder it is for kids who can't always ask the questions and can't always access the information. They just go along with whatever. And so these kind of things really can lower anxiety, so that's really helpful.
Laura Deeken: Even in our church bulletins, we have the order of service even though it's to be the same week after week. So even as adults, we like to know what's expected.
Sandra Peoples: Yeah, that's true. All right. Cortney, what do you have to add to that question?
Cortney Jenkins: Yeah, so I definitely see the visual supports as essential tools for supporting students who have disabilities, whether that's in your regular children's ministry or in a specialized environment. The visual schedules are such great tools to be able to use for all students. We have definitely found that other kids, even if they don't have disabilities, really do benefit from having that visual schedule. So Awe & Wonder provides visual schedules, as well as "First, then" boards. So if you have students who are overwhelmed by even just four or five scheduled cards, just having two options of first we're going to be doing this and next we're going to be doing that is helpful as well.
We also provide buddy support bag tools. We have lanyard cards that have one word with a visual support added onto that. So maybe you have a child who is nonverbal and they have some difficulty with receptive language, so they may hear you say something, but it may take them a while to process what you verbally have told them to do the directions.
So maybe you need to show them a picture of ‘sit’ so that they see, okay, I need to sit right now. And it's easier for them to process that instead of just hearing you give those directions. So that is really helpful. I can't remember how many cards there are around 30 different cards you can put on a lanyard that has just different words that can be used to support that in the classroom. And then Laura was saying, social stories are great. We have a going to church social story that can be customized with your own pictures and things like that. Then we have a free tool that is a About Me worksheet that can be really great for parents to fill out for their child, to give volunteers specific information about this is how my child learns, these are things that my child might struggle with.
These are things they really love to be able to take with them to church, to be able to show the volunteers, especially if it's like a rotating volunteer schedule and they don't have the same person every week. That can be really helpful. And then churches can also utilize that by reformatting a little bit. It's a Canva template, so you can tweak it to make it work for your environment, but you can provide it for your volunteers, just kind of a profile of different children or adults of how to best serve them and what you've already talked about with parents and you've come to realize, okay, this is the best plan for them, just a quick thing to have available in the classroom.
Sandra Peoples: Those are all really helpful. At our church, we use visual schedules in two ways. I was teaching the first and second grade class and I had a visual schedule that everybody could see because we've talked about if it helps our kids with disabilities, it can help everybody. And so everybody sees the same schedule. And then my son James in his class, he has a visual schedule that he can hold and he actually, it's velcroed and once he does something, he moves it from the front of the schedule to the back of the schedule. So for him, he's kind of checking things off of his list. So even the tools that you guys provide, like a visual schedule, those can be even used in different ways and in different environments to meet the needs of the kids. I think those "First, then" schedules are helpful when you just want to say, okay, we just have this one challenging area and we're just going to say, help the kid get from first we're going to do this, then we're going to do this and it's going to be okay.
Cortney Jenkins: It really helps with transitions, helps with transitions when you have a student who doesn't want to leave a preferred activity to be able to show and using your visual timer and things like that alongside of these tools are super helpful.
Sandra Peoples: Yeah, I love visual timers. I was at Lakeshore Learning over the weekend and they had this huge stool timer and I was like, whoa, we have some that are in our buddy bags. We have the bigger ones, probably 8x8 or 10x10 or something like that. But these were huge. And I was like, do we need one that big? Maybe because creating a new sensory room at our church. And so we get to dream big and I was like, do we need one that big? But that's good. It's all really helpful. Besides using these tools on a Sunday morning, they're also really helpful for something like Vacation Bible School. At our church, we just did vacation Bible, our typical Vacation Bible School. And in July we're going to be doing our disability specific Vacation Bible School. And so the tools that you guys create, because they're customizable, so we print them off, laminate them, use Velcro dots, all of that kind of stuff.
But then on a Sunday morning, of course our times are like an hour and a half Vacation Bible School is nine to noon, and so we're going to need longer and more visual. I think we'll just print one and put it on each classroom. And of course we have a rotation too. So that's what is exciting about making these tools fit all of our different ministry environments and the schedules that we have with our kids. Alright, this is our last question and it's a big one, so we have plenty of time to talk through this because this is really one of the biggest challenges I think that disability ministry and children's ministry leaders face is finding curriculum either to teach in their specialized environments or to use alongside the curriculum that their church already uses in their inclusive environments. And so really Cortney, what you produce goes along with those specialized environments and what Laura produces really goes along with those inclusive environments.
And so I'm going to ask a couple questions and then Laura and Cortney are both going to answer based on what they provide. For example, our church uses things from both of you because they fit different needs. And that's the exciting thing about having all of these different environments because we say which environment fits a kid best, and then what modifications can we make in that environment to fit each kid? So at our church, there's two different environments and needs. So in our typical classroom, we have a curriculum that we use each week, but sometimes we just need something that makes that curriculum a little bit easier for our kids, especially with learning disabilities to understand. And then we also have specialized sensory environments and we need curriculum specifically designed for kids with intellectual disabilities or really big language challenges. And so our church has both of those environments. So let's talk about what you guys have that would help in both of those environments. And Cortney, let's start with what you have.
Cortney Jenkins: Okay, so Awe & Wonder provides a curriculum subscription. So think about if you use the Gospel Project or Orange or something like that, you have a digital subscription. It's the same type of idea. So you have a scope and sequence of how we're going to go through the Bible once a year. And so we have a unit for each month and it provides all of the lesson plans. And really the hallmark of the curriculum is our adapted Bible stories. And so they're adapted books that, again, we talked about how special education tools that we can implement with our church environments. And so that's one of those is using those adapted books. And so I provide four different levels of the adapted books. One of the huge challenges is having students who are on such diverse levels, even within a specialized classroom, you're going to have students who can read on their own some and some who can't read, some who can attend for a longer amount of time, some that you've only got a couple of minutes to try and really teach them.
And so providing those different levels is helpful for that. So you get adapted bible story books that you use throughout the month and each week there's a different story that really relates to the theme for that month. And so then the lesson plans have activities, has crafts, a sensory storytelling script that you use alongside of those adapted bible story books. So it pairs some type of multi-sensory experience with a page of the book. And so we know from research-based practices that incorporating those sensory experiences really help students be able to grasp and pay attention more with what you're talking about. And so pairing just an object or a sound or something they might be able to taste or touch is super helpful. So we provide all of that. You have printable resources, activity pages that go along with that. And we're already thinking through what adaptions need to be made. All of the activities are very visual supported and already designed specifically for students who have those more significant needs.
Sandra Peoples: We used your curriculum in our, we call it the RISE class, which is a reverse inclusion class, which is the class my son James is in. And most of the kids in there are nonverbal or have limited verbal ability. Most of them can't read. And so what you provide is really helpful for them. They put all of their projects up on the wall week one, week two, week three. And so we get to see the whole unit together through the projects and the activity sheets that they do. So we've really loved it. I've talked to other churches that use your subscription service Prestonwood up in Dallas and a few others, and everybody's just so thankful for what you do. And we use some of your family resources. We have a prayer book that you created that James gets to pick what he wants to pray for that day, or even confessing sins, here's what he might want to apologize for that day. And so both what you do for families and what you do for churches is really helpful.
Cortney Jenkins: Awesome.
Sandra Peoples: Okay. And Laura also has resources, Laura, I talked about we're planning our disability VBS this summer in July. And so the disability ministry director at our church, we were on your teacher's pay teacher site yesterday trying to figure out what we wanted to download to help support the students who are going to be at our disability VBS. So why don't you talk about some of the things that you create and offer.
Laura Deeken: Sure. So at the adapted word, everything is built on repetition. So as a speech language pathologist, I know that the more that children with disabilities hear the concepts, the more they learn. It's not fun to say the same thing over and over again. So we have to find different ways to do that. It's not fun for volunteers, it's not fun for the kids. So how can we make it meaningful? So I also have adapted books. I do have a subscription service with some of the newer products, some of the newer resources than Teachers Pay Teachers has, although I do have a store there. And so some of the activities include making Play-Doh shapes that comes along with a page for volunteers to talk about the story with the child. The first time I took a Plato mat into my church, the volunteer said, look, we made these pretty flowers for Days of creation.
And I said, well, did you talk about Days of Creation? So as a volunteer myself. I want to be able to walk into church and go, what do you want me to do? How do you want me to do it? So everything comes with instructions for how to work with the child. So anybody can walk in without pre-planning and go, oh, well they play with Play-Doh, I can do this. I've also started some visual supports for the kids who are non-speaking or who have such anxiety that it's hard for them to talk to people at church. And that way that they can point to answers, who taught this story? Jesus, they can point to Jesus. It takes out the language. Sometimes I think that we think, oh, I can comfort this child. I can make it better for them. And we them with language when really we should be pulling back and just letting them know we are a safe person.
And by giving them visuals to communicate and answer, we can help those kids who are non-speaking, but we can also help those kids with anxiety go, okay, you don't want to talk to us, then we'll give you other options for communication. And it's not a demand as much as a way to be accessible to that child. So everything comes with activities. Everything is designed, it's not really a specific curriculum in that it doesn't have a scoping sequence like Cortney says. But if you're doing Jesus called Matthew, then you can pull out activities and you can go over that key idea. Matthew was a disciple. Matthew helped Jesus. And it gives you different ways to meaningfully do that and easy ways to do that if you're the person working with the child.
Sandra Peoples: And that's what I love about how it just supplements. If a church, especially the decision about curriculum is already made in our typical classroom, it is the Bible Project or it's Orange or it's whatever. But in our children's ministry classes, they're still kind of themed, like you said, the calling of Matthew. And so if the ministry director knows here's what we're doing this week, but we have kids who may need it in a simpler way or reiterating the same lesson, then they can download what you have and use that as a supplement in their typical classrooms to be able to really help what they're already trying to communicate. And even if it's just, Hey, I need to make this language simpler or I need to lower the anxiety for these kids, I love that. We had a situation at Vacation Bible School or one of our little kids, he was walking with his class and he was just crying.
And so I pulled him aside like, what's wrong? My tummy hurts. Well, do you want this? Do you want this? And then he couldn't talk, right, because I'm giving him too many. I gave him four or five, do you need to go to the bathroom? Are you thirsty? Are you hungry? Do you want to go to the nurse? And he just, like you said, shut down. And then I was like, well, what do you want? And he's like, I just want to walk with my class. You pulled me out of line and I was doing what I wanted to do. And so that's an example. But that happens every Sunday where we kind of overwhelm kids with language or options or concepts they don't understand. And so having what you talked about those symbols or easier ways for them to answer or just remembering ourselves to slow down to make it easier, I think that's really helpful.
And you guys both do this not only through the curriculum that you provide, but also through your social media channels. And so I really got to know both of you first on Instagram and then got to know more about what you did. And I think both of you do a good job of saying, here's a specific question and here's an answer for that question, or here's a challenge that we face and here's a solution for that challenge. And so why don't you both talk about where our listeners can find you on social media, what your favorite platform is, or give your the handles that you have so people can find you. So Cortney, you want to go first?
Cortney Jenkins: Absolutely. So definitely my favorite place to hang out online is Instagram, so you can find me @awe__and__wonder I think if you just type in on wonder, it will come up. But that's where I hang out most of the time. And I do love to provide just some practical tips or just to hear from other people who are in the same boat. So just providing questions of what is it like for you as a ministry leader or as a parent who's trying to make church accessible. I think just hearing from other people and knowing that you're not alone can be helpful. And so I like to provide that through my Instagram.
Sandra Peoples: Yeah, that's great. And Laura?
Laura Deeken: Yes, I'm also on Instagram mostly. It does connect to my Facebook. My Instagram is @the.adapted.word, and so if you're on Facebook, you can probably Google it, but I don't really interact there. I interact more on Instagram.
Sandra Peoples: Which is a great platform because so much of what y'all do is visual. And so that brings in that visual aspect so people can see and talk to you guys. And Laura does a lot of polls in her stories. I always love to see, do you think you should do this or do you think? And so I always, I'm like, am I confident enough to go ahead and answer? And then I do. And I'm like, okay, good. What was it last week, Laura? It was something about flavors or what was food we liked? I mean, that's what, it's just easy things.
Laura Deeken: Sometimes I make it easy because I'm also trying to model and make whoever's looking at Instagram feel like, oh, I feel confident about answering this and this is how we should make our kids feel that they are confident about answering and not hesitant.
Sandra Peoples: Yeah, I know you do a good job with that. I'm always like, okay, I can do this because even if I get it wrong, Laura's still going to help me know what's right so we can do this together. That's really fun. Well, thanks for spending time with me today, you guys. I'm excited about what you do and how you help churches. I'm excited about the fall. I mean, I know it's July 4th weekend if everybody's listening in real time, but as ministry leaders, we're always planning a few months ahead of time and it's really time to start thinking about what we're going to do in the fall and hopefully build off the momentum that we've built over the summer. A lot of us have had kids at VBS or other activities that don't normally attend church, and sometimes that's because of disabilities that they have. And we want to make sure that if they show up in the fall that we are ready for them and can meet their diverse learning needs. And so we're really thankful for what you guys do and how you make it easier for ministry leaders to welcome kids like both of my kids with dyslexia and with autism. Thank you for what you do.
Alright, listening friends, thank you so much for joining with us today. We always love spending time with you, especially in the busy summer and around a holiday weekend. So thanks for taking time to listen and if you enjoyed this episode, go ahead and hit a five star rating. It helps other listeners know that this podcast would be good for them too. While you're on Instagram, looking up, Cortney and Laura, make sure that you're following Key Ministry and you can even share the episode with your followers so that they can listen in as well. So thank you again for listening and we will be back with a new episode next week.
