Language Delays, Church Inclusion, & Information You Need

Picture this:

There's a young boy with an Intellectual Disability sitting in a children's church. He only says a few words. The teacher at church wonders how he can participate more while he is in class.

There's a young teen with Down syndrome who is very social and enjoys church. The teen is verbal but struggles to understand and answer questions. The teacher at church wants to make sure the teen is understanding their lessons to encourage spiritual growth but isn't sure what to do differently.

While the other children in Sunday school sing in worship, there's a student with little verbal speech standing quietly. The church volunteer would like to see the student participate in worship, but she doesn't know how to encourage participation.


It is a beautiful thing to see people with disabilities attend church. Much like in a school setting, churches often need to make accommodations to make sure these members can learn, participate, and grow in their faith just like anyone else.

At a couple of different ministry conferences last year, I presented a workshop called "Supporting and Teaching Children who are Language Delayed, Minimally Verbal, or Nonverbal." As a pediatric speech-language pathologist and the mother of a child with minimally verbal speech, I was excited to share some ideas and knowledge I have collected over the years.

After my presentation at the Inclusion Fusion Live conference in Cleveland, Ohio, I wrote a few posts for Key Ministry highlighting portions of my presentation. These include:

Tips for Starting Sign Language in Your Special Needs Ministry

How to Develop Prayer in Children with Little Speech

How to Help Those with ID/DD Understand Baptism


On April 24 & 25, 2020, I'll be back at Inclusion Fusion Live. This conference is perfect for ministry leaders, families, and those caring for individuals with disabilities. My topic this year will be "30 Ways to Include the Person with Severe Language Delays." The title sort of sums up my talk, but I'll be sharing ways we can include people with more severe language delays at church during prayer, worship, lessons, fun & games, etc.

As a bonus for reading this today, I'll share with you two of those ways to include those with severe language delays that will be further discussed in April.

#1. Consider having live music for your students. 
A guitarist or pianist is an excellent addition to your worship time (as opposed to CDs or videos) because the musician can adjust the tempo of the music to better fit your students' needs. People who are minimally verbal or struggle to put sentences together can benefit from music played at a slower pace. Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities may process information slower and therefore benefit from a slower tempo. 

If you think finding a musician may be difficult, think outside the box. In our church's special needs class, my 10 year old son plays his guitar a few Sundays a month. He isn't the perfect guitarist since he's young. However, the kids look past his mistakes and enjoy his music. His acoustic guitar isn't too loud, so even those with sensory processing disorder have enjoyed it. He's adjusted the songs so that we sing them slowly. This has allowed singing to occur for the students who were struggling to sing along to videos.

Live music allows you to sing a song a few times in a row. Repetition is helpful for those who need more time to process or learn the words. A musician can also play choruses of songs and omit verses that have verbiage that may be too hard for our students. In short, you can customize your worship to fit the needs of those in your class.


#2. Compile a list of conversation starters for the volunteers. 

Sometimes, the most seasoned volunteer just doesn't know how to begin a conversation with a child who is nonverbal or minimally verbal. At our church, we have a communication chart for volunteers to reference. It lists some things the child is interested in so that volunteers can start conversations and find common ground. For my daughter, Beauty and the Beast, Disney Princesses, pizza, and her cousin Gabby are all listed. Even though she can't have full conversations, a new volunteer can make comments that can connect with the her interest. ("You're coloring with yellow. Princess Belle wears a pretty yellow dress.") 

You may be wondering how to gather this information. When a new student attends our special needs ministry class for the first time, we have a one page paper of various questions to ask parents in order to know how to best support their child. One of the questions is about the student's interests. This is a great thing to know for reward systems and to understand what topics a child may enjoy talking about. Some children may not be able to respond to general questions ("What video games do you like to play?"). But, by making a comment or asking a simple yes/no question about an interest, we may have better success at connecting with the child ("My son loves Minecraft. I like the chickens on it. Do you like the chickens on Minecraft?"). If I know a child likes animals, I may pull up a picture of my cat to show them and start a conversation. Getting the information from the caregivers takes the guess work out for the volunteers. 

At the conference, I'll be giving about 30 more of these tips for churches to foster inclusion of those who are nonverbal, minimally verbal, or language delayed. I really hope to see you there in April!

To learn more about the conference or register, check out the website.