Spiritual Practices for All Learning Styles
Worship Resources for Children
As part of our congregation's journey to include "neurospicy"children in worship, I incorporated Sensory Regulation Fidgets in our Activity Bags. In 2006, we became part of the All In: Immersive Worship for Everbody project along with 19 other congregations. Here are various resources for worship.
Sensory Regulation Toolkit
Prayer Resources for Youth & Adults
The following Prayer Resources are best used with Youth and Adults. They can be set up as experiential stations during a retreat or quiet Response & Reflection time during an integrative worship time.
Some of the inventories at the end of the list were created for Spiritual Direction and Yearly Reviews.
Learning to "pay attention" to God in Worship and Prayer
Howard Gardner describes Nine Levels of Multiple Intelligence. These are different types (or learning styles) that help us pay attention and learn. We each have a few areas of strengths and a few areas that we are weaker in. If you start learning with your areas of strengths, it then becomes easier to challenge yourself to learn in the weaker areas if combined with an area of strength.
We can also view these nine types through the lens of how we "pay attention to God" in our prayer and worship life. Finding our strengths allows us to deepen our connection to God. Learning to challenge ourselves with activities and styles outside of our comfort zone helps us to grow. I developed this idea during my Spiritual Direction training in 2002 -2004, and continued to expand it over the years. There are many additional ideas, such as Forest Bathing in Nature, that are not included in this chart.
I contributed this information on "Learning Styles and Prayer Forms" for a chapter on Promoting Spiritual Health: Children and Youth (Chapter 19) Interprofessional Perspectives for Community Practice Promoting Health, Well-Being, and Quality of Life by Michael Pizzi, Mark Amir ; SLACK Inc · Feb 15, 2024. This is a multidisciplinary textbook that weaves interprofessionalism, community practice, and health, well-being, and quality of life for health care workers and students. Deanna Waggy
Learning Styles and Prayer
What are your primary types and how can you incorporate these learning styles into your worship and prayer life?
Worship: Hear, See, Do
This is a PDF of a powerpoint used to introduce ideas for prayer and interactive worship based on Right and Left Brain learning and engaging the senses.
Learning Styles Booklet
This booklet accompanies a Prayer Retreat for Youth and Adults. Participants were introduced to the styles through various "stations" during the retreat.
You are welcome to use my resources.
I am at a point in my life where I want to share my wisdom and resources with others. You may use the original documents. If you decide to adapt them, please give me proper credit when possible, just like I gave proper credit for the resources that I adapted from their original source.
For those who wish to gift me a cup of coffee or dinner out as an exchange of gratitude for these resources, my Venmo is @Deanna-Waggy. You can contact me at 574-276-1068 or ot4peace@gmail.com for any questions. I also like to hear how you are using the resources! Warm Regards, Deanna Waggy
