Children's Mental Health Disorders about 1 in 5 children have a diagnosable mental illness. Nearly 5 million children and adolescents in the United States have a serious mental illness that significantly interferes with their day-to-day life. Download an informational flyer from the National Federation of Families here.
Hearing Impairments
Resurrection Parish at 130 Como Park Blvd. in Cheektowaga offers a religious education program for children with hearing impairments. Please contact coordinator, Theresa Taneff at (716) 683-3712.
Signed Masses are offered weekly at 10:30AM Sundays at Resurrection Parish and at 12:30PM Sunday Mass at St. Gregory the Great Parish in Williamsville. Visit www.stregs.org to view the Mass live.
Sacrament of Reconciliation is a program consisting of a DVD with lesson plans to assist in preparing individuals who are deaf or hearing impaired for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, produced by the National Catholic Office for the Deaf. The DVD is in American Sign Language with English captions and voice over in spoken English. Download flyer to order.
Sacrament of Eucharist is a DVD program used by parents and catechists to prepare youth for the Sacrament of Eucharist. The program includes activities, worksheets, and posters. The program is signed and closed captioned in both English and Spanish.
Communicating Through Hearing Loss this one page flyer offers tips for communicating with people with hearing impairments in a group setting and one-to-one.
Visual Impairments
Visual impairment occurs when there is an impairment in the functioning of the eye. The impairment may be in the eye itself, where images are processed in a portion of the brain or in the nerves that send messages to the brain. Impairments range from a slight loss to blindness. One impairment may be problems with light or depth perception, resulting in tunnel vision or poor peripheral (all around) vision. With low vision, correction is made with glasses and there is some ability to read. Some people with visual impairments may require large print, which signifies print in: 18 point or larger. Every seven minutes someone becomes blind or visually impaired.
The Xavier Society for the Blind provides spiritual and religious materials to individuals throughout the United States at no charge. They are the National Catholic Lending Library for the Blind and have a variety of events and new programs which will expand their ability to help clients. The website is designed to be accessible to screen reading programs, and those who have registered with the XSB have a special section where they can make address changes, order books from the library, and download or sign up to receive periodicals. They offer various religious education series in Braille. For more information on how to register or how to get online, contact clientservices@xaviersocietyfortheblind.org
A Clear View: Interacting with People with Vision Loss this one-page flyer offers do's and dont's for interacting with a person with visual impairments.
For information on Specific Disabilities, click here