Overview on Hidden Disabilities prepared for Volunteers from Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York, NY, Fall 2010

1. Hidden Disabilities 101:
Tips and tools for including children with Hidden
Disabilities and their families at church
Katie Wetherbee, M.A.
Stephen Grcevich, M.D.
Prepared for Redeemer Presbyterian Church
New York, NY
©Key Ministry

2. Objectives
Participants will
• Define Hidden Disabilities
• Discuss effects of HD on church involvement
• Identify God’s design for HD ministry
• List practical strategies for welcoming and teaching
children with HD
• Summarize challenges that parents of kids with HD face
• Practice planning for students using case studies

3. Know-Wonder-Learn
What do we What do we What did we
KNOW? WONDER? LEARN?

4. What are Hidden Disabilities?
A hidden disability (HD) is a serious emotional,
behavioral, developmental or neurological
disorder with no outwardly apparent
symptoms

5. Examples of Hidden Disabilities:
• Autism, autistic spectrum disorders
• Developmental disabilities
• Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Learning disabilities
• Anxiety disorders
• Mood disorders (depression, bipolar disorder)
• Attachment disorders (common among adopted, foster children)
• Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE)
• Brain injury: resulting from trauma, epilepsy, stroke
Stephen Grcevich, MD, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

7. “Rethinking” disability and church
• An individual with a disability is defined as a person who
has a mental or physical impairment that substantially
limits one or more major life activities, a record of such
impairment, or is regarded as having such an
impairment.
Taken from www.joniandfriends.org

8. “Rethinking” disability and church
• If a mental or physical impairment
substantially limits a person’s ability to
actively pursue spiritual growth and fully
participate in the ministry of a local church, is
that person “disabled?”

9. The Ultimate Low-Hanging Fruit for
Evangelism, Outreach?
• 9% of U.S. kids ages 6-17 have received Rx for ADHD
meds
• 1/91 kids born in 2008 will be diagnosed with autism
• Prevalence of anxiety disorders among U.S. youth: 8-20%
• 12-20% of school age population needs mental health
treatment
• What about siblings who don’t get to experience
church?
• Who equips parents to shepherd their kids in the faith?
• Key Ministry estimate: families of children with HD at
least 50% less likely to be involved with a local church
Report of the Surgeon General of the United States, 1999

10. What barriers keep families of kids with
hidden disabilities from coming to Christ or
growing in faith?

11. How do HDs pose barriers to church
participation, spiritual growth?:
• Difficulties with self-regulation: sitting through
worship service, arriving on time, practicing spiritual
disciplines
• Developmentally inappropriate inattention: difficulty
with didactic teaching, distracted while praying,
reading Bible
• Lack of ability to accurately perceive social cues: don’t
“fit in” with middle, high school groups, feel rejected
by peers, view Christians as hypocrites
• Abnormal responses to sensory input, stimulation:
volume of music, brightness of lights, bold color,
physical contact experienced as aversive

12. How do HDs pose barriers to church
participation?:
• Restricted pattern of interests or behavior: lack
interest in group participation, rigid
• Misperception of danger level, embarrassment risk:
visiting church for first time is intimidating, avoid
groups apprehensive about new experiences…
mission trips, retreats, self-disclosure distressing
• Difficulty with learning/communication: child or
adult with dyslexia asked to read aloud from the
Bible

13. How do HDs pose barriers to church
participation?:
• Disproportionate fear, physiologic response to
stress: crowded lobbies or worship
auditorium, separation from parents
• Difficulty with transition, change: interactions with
unfamiliar people, transitions from one ministry
team to another
• Inappropriate affect: child laughs, expresses
indifference at a sad story, irritated when greeted by
others

14. Why is church so hard for kids with Hidden
Disabilities?
• Expectations for kids to sit for extended periods
• Leaders of church-based educational programs don’t
have training or experience in working with kids with
disabilities
• Environment often less structured, more noisy than
school
• Lots of youth activities occur at times when
medication has worn off or rebound is occurring
• Parents sometimes choose not to use effective
medication on weekends

15. More HD issues related to church
• Kids may obsess about rituals and rules
• New situations/pressure to “share feelings”
can be anxiety producing
• Church can be unpredictable, loud and
unstructured
• Faith is INTANGIBLE; difficult for kids who are
concrete thinkers

16. What about the parents?
(The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!)
• 50% of kids with ADHD have persistent
impairment as adults…77% of ADHD cases
attributed to genetics
• Heritability of anxiety disorders: 40-80%
• More likely to be divorced or never married
• If untreated, they’re more likely to have
experienced a substance use disorder

17. Barriers for Parents:
• Parents fear being judged within the Christian
community
• Parents become tired of having to manage their child’s
behavior—and explain it to others in new settings
• Social isolation is often the norm; families affected by
hidden disabilities are less likely to be invited to
church
• Stress, economic strain and fatigue common
• More likely to stay home on Sunday

18. Needs of kids
• Parents equipped to shepherd them in their faith
• To learn about God and the love He has for all of us
through His son, Jesus Christ
• The opportunity to serve others…to use and develop their
gifts
• Connecting with other Christians as a positive experience
“The best hour of the week”
• To experience other Christians (adults and peers) acting
and speaking in accordance with professed beliefs
• Acceptance

19. Needs of parents
• A church willing to partner with parents in
equipping them to be the primary faith
trainer for all of their children
• Experience opportunities to grow in their
faith unencumbered by immediate care
demands of their child (worship, small groups,
service)
• Respite
• Community
• Acceptance

20. What do I hope will happen today?
• God will use this experience equip you to more
effectively minister to families of kids with HD already in
your church
• You’ll take away strategies to reach and welcome a large
segment of families in your community who aren’t
connected to a church
• You’ll consider how to include more families impacted by
HDs into your existing programming
• Your church will increase its’ commitment to a region-
wide project to reach families of children, youth with
special needs through a “rolling respite network”
http://www.freerespite.com

21. What does God have to say about this?
• Make disciples of all people
(Matthew 28:19-20)
• Share the hope of the Gospel and serve those
who are broken
(Luke 4:18-19, Matthew 25:40)
• The church is incomplete without the gifts of
all(1 Corinthians 12:14-31)
• He will get the glory!
(John 9:1-3)

22. SO…now what?
• Key ways to make Sunday morning
successful for all kids:
– Set the table…(How can I prepare?)
– Meat –n--potatoes (What do I want my students
to learn?)
– Be Rachel Ray (How can I model “best practices”
for those around me?)
– Party hearty! (What successes can I celebrate and
share?)

23. Welcome!
• Respond quickly and without judgment to parents of kids
having difficulty
• Train greeters to alert appropriate staff/volunteers
• Ministry leader in place with appropriate means of
communication
• Create a quiet place to meet with parent, child
• Offer the parent the option of attending worship or staying
with their child at first visit
• Contact the family after their first visit
• Implement a plan to serve the child by the following week
that is agreeable to the parent

24. Ministry Intake:
• Not an event, but a process: relationship- building
• Not all families will self-identify
• Handling referrals from a Sunday School teacher
• Reassure parents that their child isn’t being labeled
• Maintain communication with parents
• Update information yearly on intake forms

25. Practical Strategies
• Behavior management
• Planning and collaborating with teachers
• Social Stories
• Scheduling
• Finding that “just right” fit
• Identify—and use--each child’s gifts
• Identify—and use—each volunteer’s gifts

26. The “key” point of the lesson?
Jesus loves me, this I know…
for the Bible tells me so.

27. Parents have special needs, too
• What does God say about Sundays?
• What have the last 6 days been like for
parents?

28. What does the Bible say about working
with parents?
• 1 Corinthians 12:14-31~ We need them in the
body
• Romans 12:11-17~ Rejoice with those who
rejoice, weep with those who weep…
• 1 Peter 3:8~ Unity, love of each other,
sympathy, humble mind
• 1 Corinthians 8:1b-3~ “Knowledge puffs up;
but love builds up.”

29. Know-Wonder-Learn
What do we What do we What did we
KNOW? WONDER? LEARN?

30. HELP WANTED:Sunday School teachers with a heart for
kids with Hidden Disabilities
Experience needed: NONE; but a willingness to learn
and an ability to love kids is essential
Hours: Sunday mornings, weekly prep time
Benefits: Your salary will be kept in a safe, fully secure
location, where it cannot be stolen. It will remain
free of moths and undamaged by rust.
….You can pick it up when you get home

31. Key Ministry: How Can We Serve You?
Key Ministry: www.keyministry.org provides
resources to churches free of charge:
 Best Practices Resource Kit “Key Ring Binder”
 Web-based resources (Blogs, Twitter, Facebook)
 Opportunities to network with other churches
 Phone consultation
 On-site consultation, training
 Celebrating your successes
 Local and National conferences
 Praying for you

32. Please Stay in Touch!
Key Ministry Foundation
Rebecca Hamilton, Executive Director
8401 Chagrin Road, Suite 14B
Chagrin Falls OH 44023
Phone: 440/708-4488
rebecca@keyministry.org
katie@keyministry.org
www.keyministry.org