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CUMC offers sensory-based Christmas experience
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Jon, of Canfield, and his sister, Erica, enjoyed decorating and tasting sugar cookies at the cookie decorating station during the Canfield United Methodist Church’s program The Sights and Sounds of Christmas, a unique Christmas experience for students from preschool to age 21 with special needs on Dec. 20.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Carson Markley brought his goat, Kemal, to the Canfield United Methodist Church’s program The Sights and Sounds of Christmas, a unique Christmas experience for students from preschool to age 21 with special needs on Dec. 20.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Participating in the Canfield United Methodist Church’s program The Sights and Sounds of Christmas, a unique Christmas experience for students from preschool to age 21 with special needs, were, from left, Susan Costantini, Donna Gerlach, Ali Irons, Cade Henry and Cheryl Thompson.
By ABBY SLANKER
The Canfield United Methodist Church hosted The Sights and Sounds of Christmas, a unique Christmas experience for students with special needs from preschool to age 21 in the community on Dec. 20. The event offered a Christmas experience, which was welcoming and accessible to all multiple disability students.
“We know families of special needs folks are often hesitant to bring them to church for many reasons,” said Rev. Susan Brown, senior pastor. “We wanted to come up with a worship experience for these students which would not have sensory overload and would revolve around the Christmas story. We want everyone to have the opportunity to experience the story of the birth of Christ.”
The program was a multi-sensory Christmas experience, including a nativity dress up, farm animal petting, cookie decorating and tasting, music making and sensory toy playing. Each station was set up with several volunteers from the church and the community.
The nativity dress up was offered in the sanctuary with several costumes from which the students could choose. The farm animal petting offered two rabbits and a goat for the students to interact with and experience the sense of touch. The cookie decorating station offered sugar cookies, which could be decorated with icing and sprinkles, and gave the students the opportunity to experience the sense of taste. The music making station consisted of playing instruments, making motions to music, drumming on knees and, of course, singing carols, which offered the sense of sound. The sensory toy playing station offered students the sense of feel as they used a sensory table filled with uncooked rice and small items.
The program was designed and executed by a group of educators with experience in working with disabled students who are part of the church congregation, with Linda Smith serving as committee chair.
“Our committee consists of a group of educators from our congregation with experience in working with disabled students, but this event focuses on multiple disabilities students. This is also part of our outreach to the community and we hope to make this an annual event. This is our first attempt and we will take notes from this year and apply it to next year,” Smith said.
The church offered the program twice, with the first one open to students of Canfield, Austintown, Poland, Western Reserve and South Range school districts, and the second program open to students from Youngstown, Boardman and other local school districts.
The students were also given a keepsake from each station which represented the purpose of the station.