Every child and young person needs support to help them learn or engage with activities. Some need additional or different support from those of the same age to ensure that everyone benefits from all they participate in. We want to address some of the important questions around these needs. Welcome to ‘All inclusive’.
“Phew! Wot A Scorcher!” scream the newspaper headlines as the sunny spell continues and temperatures are forecast to rise to new record levels once again. Yet, for families with children with additional needs, and the children’s and families workers that look after them, the screams are all too real as they and their children struggle to cope with the heat, especially if going out for a church trip, a camp or a Christian festival.
So, here are some links to places that anyone caring for children with additional needs can go to get some help and advice as we all try to support our additional needs children in the hot weather.
Mummy Est.2014
This is a great website for families of children with additional needs, and those that support them, and this blog post is packed with helpful tips to cope with the heat.
Red Cross
Always a useful resource for health and safety tips, the Red Cross website has a great article with seven things to remember in a heatwave.
Save the Children
Save the Children has ten tips for keeping children safe during a heatwave!
BBC News
The disability area of the BBC News website is always worth a look, and it currently has a really helpful article about cooling solutions for disabled people of any age, including children.
UK government
There is lots of advice from the government at the moment about heatwaves, but this article from the Education Hub also offers some helpful info about what to look out for if our children are overheating. It’s aimed at schools, but is equally applicable to church settings too.
The SEN Resources Blog
Another useful website for families and carers to explore anyway, but the SEN Resources Blog also has this useful article to help keep our children cool during a heatwave.
Twinkl
And finally…here are some resources from Twinkl to help to explain about a heatwave to your additional needs children and those that you care for…But remember, as we navigate a safe path through another hot summer with the children and young people that we journey with: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” Ecclesiastes 1:9.
And… “As long as the earth lasts, there will always be a time to plant and a time to gather the crops. As long as the earth lasts, there will always be cold and heat. There will always be summer and winter, day and night” Genesis 8:22 (NIrV).
I hope this provides you with a head start as you look to keep your child with additional needs, or those that you care for, safe and cool during a hot spell, and as you help them to understand more about heatwaves too.
