Theologies of Child Well-Being, Agency, & Voice

This paper identifies and analyzes patterns of ableist attention economies in children’s educational settings within U.S. Protestant ecclesial communities, and offers alternative modes of being and becoming church. Careful examination of popular Christian curricula and materials from parachurch organizations discloses widespread disembodied pedagogical practices, which overwhelmingly lack principles of universal design for learning (UDL) and overlook the needs of neurodivergent child audiences. To address this failure of imagination and in an effort to construct better approaches, the paper takes up interpretations of the Biophilia Hypothesis, related theories of Attention Restoration Therapy (ART), and the science of children’s spirituality. Collectively these fields point to children’s need for nature connectedness and the particular role nature plays in the spiritual formation of children with so-called attention deficits. Because children are also theologically formed by worship, the paper briefly addresses contemporary research on children, disability and worship, championing the need for nature-rich sensory experiences.