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One of the themes of the conference on autism and advocacy that was held last October 27th at Fordham University in New York City was to reflect on ways to promote full inclusion for persons with autism in the life of faith communities. Nes Gadol is an effort launched at West Los Angeles’ Vista Del Mar to help children with ” degrees of learning challenges become sons and daughters of the commandment,” as described in the May 11th Jewish Journal. An article in today’s Bergen Record details a program at the Church of the Nativity in Midland Park, New Jersey, where seven children, all who have autism, will take First Communion on May 19th.
Nes Gadol is Hebrew for a “great miracle” and is one of a number of “outreach efforts in Los Angeles aimed at boys and girls with special needs.” One of the participants is 13-year-old Neal Hall who has autism and is non-verbal; his mother, Elaine Hall (the director of The Miracle Project) notes that at first thought it “unrealistic” for Neal to have a bar mitzvah. The program provides a “way to connect with a Jewish rite on their terms”—on the special needs children’s terms, that is.
Nes Gadol uses a prayer book and materials inspired by a special-needs program used by the Masorti movement, Israel’s version of Conservative Judaism. Puzarne said there wasn’t much time to schedule programming once he and Hall took on the assignment. “We had to pull together a program in months,” he said. “We had to illustrate almost every Hebrew word, and I’m now taking that back to my typical kids.”
Some autistic children learn visually, while others learn through auditory cues or movement.
Visual icons are placed over every Hebrew word in the prayer book, and CDs of prayers are also distributed to students to help them study. Prayers are also taught through movement and storytelling for those who are kinesthetic learners.
Similarly, at the Church of the Nativity in New Jersey, instructions was tailored to meet the autistic children’s specific learning needs.
Cindy Oliver Wellekens, a former special education teacher with two autistic kids of her own, prepared the Nativity kids for Communion, using pictures, short stories and lots of repetition. The class reflects the wide spectrum of autistic symptoms, with some children appearing relatively high-functioning and others unable to speak.
We broke everything into teeny little parts,” Wellekens said. “They don’t see the big picture. … They need to look at the different components. Just making the sign of the cross took weeks of practice — up, down, left, right.”
On March 28th, Neal Hall and 15-year-old William Lambert will be the first students in the group to “called to the Torah.” As Elaine Hall says: “‘”Everything with autism just takes more time.’”
hello dr. chew
God bless you and all you do, dr. chew. i truly love reading about you and your family!!! have autismvox on my google webpage
as the director of SAIL, School for Autistically Impaired Learners, in Toledo, Ohio, we begin our every day with prayer with our children. After prayer, we read Bible stories with supporting pictures. The children read aloud and match the pictures — then, we begin our ABA and academics!!!!
Our children become calm and super-attentive ~ a wonderful sight to see and share!!! Truly, they *get it* — i am convinced!!! SAIL is embedded within St. Clement Parish School and our children enjoy inclusion within the typical classrooms. SAIL children also have access to St. Clement Church — our children often visit the alter–we kneel – pray — light candles and bless mommy and daddy and siblings!!!
any time you might be in Toledo — please visit SAIL!!!! we are in session full day and 12 months per year — God is good all the time!!!!
sincerely
marion boss, CED, PhD
419.537.SAIL [-7245]
http://www.SAILOHIO.org
1280 days ago
[...] reader, Rev nancy, recently commented on a post about Religious Education for Autistic Children: Hi I came to the [...]
Hi I came to the website out of an experience last summer with a man in a parish I was visiting who had two autistic children. When I was in the inner city I wrote simple gospel plays for children with one line apiece for each character because the kids could not read. I used my imagination for most of them. I gave the parishioner two and he took them home and read them with his children He said they liked it very much. I gather these children are high functioning but it would be possible to do these with simple masks or puppets. What else are people doing to teach?
@Sherry,
thanks for writing here—there is a booklet called “Autism and Faith” that may also be of interest to you; you can read about it here:
http://www.autismvox.com/autism-and-faith-a-journey-into-community/
I can also contact the editors of the booklet if you would like. Very best—–
Sherry, feel free to contact me and I’ll give you some tips. My email is christschool at mac dot com
I have just been appointed Sunday school teacher for a small church the class is for 3 and 4 y/o and two of the children have autisim, I would really like some tips or input, I have had these children in the nursery as was nursery director and because I didn’t
stress out when either of them got out of control they want me to try teaching them.
@Mary Beth,
Very glad to hear from you—-we used to live in St. Louis (in the county) and my husband was a professor at Saint Louis University. I’m going to look up the Rose Kennedy Curriculum; if I may ask, what school do you teach at?
@Mary Denos,
Thank you for writing and hope all those kids are doing well—-best wishes–
I alwayss hoped there was movement toward this. I was a preschool educator in a class (catholic school) where there were behaviior problems. I pointed out that these were special needs children. No extra help provided. Now I see one of the kids in the behavioral class at the public school where I work. jesus loves ALL the children! Mary
Hi to all! I have never participated in a forum such as this, but I had to write. I was looking up information for a meeting tomorrow with a Lutheran church group who is trying to include students with autism in their sacrament preparation programs. I am the coordinator of Special Religious Education Ministry for the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis, Missouri, a position I have held part-time for 15 years. I am also a classroom teacher (in a Catholic school) of students with learning disabilities, AD(H)D, and mild autism. We have had Catholic special education (full-time and weekly religion classes) for over 50 years in our archdiocese. Our Special Religious Education Ministry has a few students who work individually or in small groups with other students with disabilities, but, primarily, we support parishes in educating their own students with disabilities in regular parish programs by offering alternative materials, support volunteers, or teacher in-service.
We use the Rose Kennedy Curriculum with many of our students, and it is available through Silver, Burdett and Ginn Publishing in the original format (12 sets of reproducible lessons with a teacher handbook and a parent handbook). They also have student books now, but I have not ordered them yet.
I also wanted to say that in my 15 years of coordinating special religious education in our archdiocese, I have never encountered a student (of any age) that could not receive sacraments. It is one of the greatest joys of my ministry to be able to assure parents when I talk to them that their child can receive the sacraments, and I say this even before I have met the child. There is a real grace in being part of the religious education and reception of sacraments of our students with challenges. Sometimes it takes a bit longer, but it can always be done. Thank you for letting me address all of you. God bless you, your ministries, and, especially, your children.
Here is a link to the Pittsburg CCD class
http://www.diopitt.org/education/opmrre.htm
Our CCD class has doubled in size from three to 6. Three ASD. Two Downs, and one child with Downs’s who is undergoing diagnosis for ASD as well. My son, for all religious purposes is non-verbal, so communion is probably as far as he is going to get.
Hi—-one book is by Barbara Newman, Autism and Your Church.
My husband, Dr. James T. Fisher, a cultural historian and professor in the theology department of Fordham University, organized a conference last year on Autism and Advocacy: A Conference of Witness and Hope. Here are articles about some of the presentations and here are online videos of the conference.
This is an article on the spirit of inclusion by Anne Masters of the Archdiocese of Newark.
And, as Master’s Thesis project, my son’s teacher is working on teaching autistic children to attend Mass. I will probably be posting some details about that here as she gets further along in this project.
Regards — my son is just a bit older than your grandson.
I am trying to start a ccd type program here at St Joseph’s in Cheyenne, Wy. I have a 9 year old autistic grandson. Can you provide me with info on course books or project books. Thanks.
I am interested in starting a ccd type of program for autistics here at St. Joseph’s in Cheyenne, Wy. Can you provide me with info on books or projects which we can use or develop to fit our needs. I have a 9 year old autistic grandson.
Not yet for me with the reading glasses—not yet……. thanks for the suggestions about PECS and photos. I’m very curious as to what Charlie’s teacher is planning; I suspect she will be using visual aides of some sort. Another friend’s son (non-verbal and autistic) received first communion in the past year or two, at a different church, and in a program also started by a very dedicated special ed teacher (she was one of Charlie’s preschool teachers).
I apologise for constantly mispelling “churches”. I just got my first pair of reading glasses and I have been trying not to/forgetting to use them and I obviously need them.
Normally, we cannot stand PECS, but religion is too theoretical and mass is very scripted, so it works well. Lots of digital pictures in the scripts. Fortunately a Special Ed teacher who is more than happy to teach religion to her students stepped in to help. She also uses a lot of “singing” and art projects to get the stories and concepts more concrete. There were “Field trips” to the altar and lots of dry runs for mass. My son was in the first “special needs” class and was the first non-verbal to receive first communion in our churches history, but I did years of prep work with him to get there. I’m sure everyone agrees that you pick your battles. This was a battle that my wife and I picked.
Thanks Lisa for the tips, I know for a fact the church here in town is a Welcoming Congregation. I just haven’t had the time or energy to call them up and drag my son down there. It would be a whole “thing”. But I will ask if they have autistic parishioners.
The complaints about the Catholic Church are funny. I was adopted at a time where they matched the babies with families of the same religion (and my parents were Catholic). Ironically, though, my parents stopped going partly for dogmatic reasons and partly because they had no childcare at all. So, I was raised as a fundamentalist Christian.
Thanks—I remember reading about the Pittrburgh program and must look it up again. Were there any specific methods you used to teach kids, set up the program, etc.?
Kristina,
You may want to have the church and Charlie’s teachers reference the Pittsburg archdiocese special needs ASD program based on the Rose Kennedy Project. Our churche’s special needs class has doubled in size since I first instigated it’s creation and now covers ASD, MR and Down’s. I know Pittsburg has (had) a web site, but it has been a while since I referenced it.
Am glad this discussion is getting picked up again—-I always hear lots of questions about it. My husband made inquiries at the church where his parents had gone for 30 years (they are Catholic) and was told that “they don’t do” anything (special) for kids like Charlie. Other families have written to him with similar stories.
However: It happens that Charlie’s teacher is doing, as her Master’s thesis, a project to teach autistic kids to go to Church (Catholic mass, in this case—she goes to the same church in our town that my in-laws used to go to). Charlie should be starting this in the next month.