In this week's episode, Beth Golik shares a must-have tool for the children's ministry setting. Spoiler alert: this is not just a "special needs ministry" thing.
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Quick Links:
Sunday School Visual Schedule Example
Worship Night Schedule Example
Boardmaker Picture Communication Symbols®
PECS® (Picture Exchange Communication System)
Key Ministry Free Consultation
Transcript:
Hi there, this is Beth Golik from Key Ministry and I want to thank you for listening to Key Ministry: The Podcast. Please take a moment to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode from my fellow co-hosts: Dr. Lamar Hardwick, Sandra Peoples, Catherine Boyle, and Dr. Steve Grcevich. Well, and me, too!
Today’s episode is a short one, but one that you’ll want to share with folks who are involved in children’s ministry. I’m going to introduce you to a practical tool that could be a game-changer for your Sunday School classroom, whether or not you have kids with diagnosed disabilities. By the way, I’m going to present this in a traditional Sunday morning children’s programming context, but I think you’ll see how this can be used in so many other ways.
Do you have students in your Sunday School classroom who seem to have difficulty with transitions? Who constantly ask, “When will this part be over?” or “What are we going to do next?” Knowing what to expect can be very empowering, particularly for some people who live with anxiety. Your children’s ministry setting is no exception.
There are some communication tools we can use in the children’s ministry environment to set expectations and help alleviate anxiety, such as schedules, social stories, and welcome videos.
In today’s episode, let’s talk about visual schedules. I’m going to give you some examples to look at in the show notes, after all, these are visual schedules, so make sure to visit keyministry.org/podcast to check them out.
For those of you in children’s ministry, what does your typical Sunday morning schedule include? Perhaps it looks something like this:
Welcome
Games and coloring
Transition to large group
Worship
Memory verse
Bible story
Worship
Review and prayer
Game
Transition to small group
Discussion
Craft
Time to go home
A visual schedule is a listing of activities, in chronological order, with a symbol depicting each one. For instance, “worship” might be illustrated by a picture of a person singing, and “memory verse” might be a picture of a Bible. The images could be icons from a program such as Boardmaker Picture Communication Symbols® or PECS® (Picture Exchange Communication System) or graphics from a Google image search, or you could even use actual photos. A schedule doesn’t have to actually include pictures, but having images will help young students who are pre-readers as well as students of any age who have learning differences or who are visual learners.
There are different ways you can use a visual schedule in the Sunday School classroom. You can post it in a prominent place and refer to it throughout the morning. If you have a few individual students in the children’s ministry setting that have a hard time with transitions or that constantly ask, “when are we going to…?” they may benefit from having their own visual schedule to hold and check off activities as they happen. If your routine is pretty much set week-to-week, consider laminating the visual schedule and providing those students with a dry erase marker to cross off activities or make a checkmark as each activity happens.
Having some control, whether that is the physical checking off or just knowing what to expect, can be a game-changer for some kids.
Here’s a tip: some students with anxiety can benefit from helping create the schedule. This might look like having them write in each activity next to the picture or matching up an icon to an activity.
Please hear me on this: this is not just a “special needs ministry” thing.
A visual schedule is an example of a tool designed to help a few that actually benefits all. It’s a must-have for Sunday School classrooms and I encourage you to share this episode with someone in kid ministry today.
Now I said we’d be focusing on children’s ministry in this episode, but let’s take the idea of a visual schedule a little bit further. A schedule of what to expect could benefit individuals who are part of your worship service, too. There’s an example of a visual schedule for a sensory-friendly worship night in the show notes.
I hope this episode inspired you to consider adding visual schedules to your toolbox. Please take a minute to give it a 5 star rating and leave a review. That will help other people know if Key Ministry: The Podcast is the right show for them. Want some help brainstorming how to create and use visual schedules at your church? Please click here for a free consultation.
