Deacon Larry Sutton knows first-hand how important and rewarding catechizing children with developmental disabilities can be. In How to Welcome, Include, and Catechize Children with Autism and Other Special Needs, he provides bishops, pastors, DREs, and other diocesan and parish leaders with a guide for creating a program that addresses the needs of children with physical, developmental, and cognitive disabilities and welcomes them into the life of the parish. How to Welcome, Include, and Catechize Children with Autism and Other Special Needs helps parishes: Understand disabilities—and abilities Build relationships with children with special needs? Provide one-on-one customized catechesis using existing resources Inspire teens to volunteer Revitalize, educate, and involve the entire parish How to Welcome, Include, and Catechize Children with Autism and Other Special Needs provides the insights needed to build an effective faith formation program. By sharing stories of success and inspiration that affect everyone—pastor, parent, student, teenager, and teacher—he delivers the unexpected: that catechizing children with special needs actually nurtures the faith of the entire parish.

It’s hard enough for today’s parents to raise faith- filled children. But for the parents of kids with special needs, the challenges can be almost overwhelming; these parents’ own spirituality may suffer amidst the daily obstacles of raising a child with disabilities, and they may wonder how—or even if—their child can ever experience a meaningful spiritual life. In Faith, Family, and Children with Special Needs, David Rizzo—whose 12-year-old daughter has autism—offers great hope for parents who want to grow in their own spirituality while helping their children with disabilities experience God in a deeper way. Throughout the book, Rizzo’s abiding though sometimes tested Catholic faith is made clear as he thoughtfully explains everything from the practical, such as how parents can maintain sanity during Mass when the child with special needs becomes disruptive, to the profound, such as how parents can understand God in a way that is relevant to their predicament. At other times, Rizzo’s advice is intended to help the child grow in his or her own faith, as when he explains how kids with special needs can participate meaningfully in the Eucharist. By looking at big-picture issues of faith while also providing speci fic tips to nurture spiritual growth in parents and in their children with disabilities, Faith, Family, and Children with Special Needs will serve as a highly useful and inspiring resource for anyone in the community of faith who interacts with children with disabilities.

For many parents seeking faith formation for their child with special needs, the resources are either severely lacking or nonexistent. A family looking to participate in the life of the Church can find it a struggle to get the support, materials, and community needed to grow the faith for their child with special needs. David and Mercedes Rizzo know the struggle all too well. When they searched for sacramental preparation materials for their daughter Daniella, who has autism and is nonverbal, they found a lack of suitable resources. Both memoir and manual, Spiritually Able: A Parent’s Guide to Teaching the Faith to Children with Special Needs is a life-preserver to parents who are seeking ways to grow and nourish a deeper relationship to God and their faith for their child with special needs. Full of tips, advice, and personal accounts, Spiritually Able helps bridge the gap and invites all into the welcoming embrace of the Church.

Christianity regards teaching as one of the most foundational and critically sustaining ministries of the Church. As a result, Christian education remains one of the largest and oldest continuously functioning educational systems in the world, comprising both formal day schools and higher education institutions as well as informal church study groups and parachurch ministries in more than 140 countries. In The Encyclopedia of Christian Education, contributors explore the many facets of Christian education in terms of its impact on curriculum, literacy, teacher training, outcomes, and professional standards. This encyclopedia is the first reference work devoted exclusively to chronicling the unique history of Christian education across the globe, illustrating how Christian educators pioneered such educational institutions and reforms as universal literacy, home schooling, Sunday schools, women’s education, graded schools, compulsory education of the deaf and blind, and kindergarten. With an editorial advisory board of more than 30 distinguished scholars and five consulting editors, TheEncyclopedia of Christian Education contains more than 1,200 entries by 400 contributors from 75 countries. These volumes covers a vast range of topics from Christian education: History spanning from the church’s founding through the Middle Ages to the modern day Denominational and institutional profiles Intellectual traditions in Christian education Biblical and theological frameworks, curricula, missions, adolescent and higher education, theological training, and Christian pedagogy Biographies of distinguished Christian educators This work is ideal for scholars of both the history of Christianity and education, as well as researchers and students of contemporary Christianity and modern religious education.

This comprehensive guide equips Catholic educators to better understand students with autism and meaningfully respond to and support their educational needs.

Fr. Matthew Schneider, a priest on the autism spectrum, knows the challenges that autistics face in prayer, as well as the autistic traits that can be leveraged to deepen one’s prayer. With clarity and honesty, he shares from his own experience and that of others on the spectrum to give hope and confidence to readers. This ground-breaking book includes 52 meditations, which provide a coherent progression of material for prayer that can be used on a daily or weekly basis. Father Matthew P. Schneider is an openly autistic Catholic priest. He’s originally from Calgary, Canada, but since joining the Legionaries of Christ, has done ministry across North America. He has written for many publications including the National Catholic Register, America, Crux, and Aleteia. [, and you] You can find him on social media at @FrMatthewLC, @AutisticicPriest, and FrMatthewLC.com. He currently lives in Northern Virginia, writing a doctoral thesis in moral theology.

"Nurturing different abilities -- Fostering strong spirits -- Growing into the community"

The Adaptive Teacher is full of ready-to-use tips to help teachers and catechists create a culture of inclusion for students, including those with disabilities.

Did You Know that Saint René Goupil, a trained surgeon and Jesuit missionary, was also completely deaf? Or that Saint Paulina, co-founder of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, lived her entire life with diabetes? Or that Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American woman canonized a saint, was visually impaired and badly scarred after battling smallpox? Growing up with cerebral palsy, Megan Gannon never imagined there were saints with disabilities! In this remarkable book, she introduces us to saints and holy people whose stories inspire us to remember that saints are human beings who experience many of the same joys and challenges that we face every day. No matter our life challenges and no matter the calling God has given us, Special Saints for Special People reminds us of the famous quote attributed to Saint Mother Teresa: "What you are is God's gift to you. What you make of yourself is your gift to God." Book jacket.