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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.’”
Hey Kim- you might want to check out one of the UU churches in Tucson. I checked the UUA website (click at the top, under “congregations”) & there are 2- no idea if which one is closer to you. You could contact the minister first to see if they have anything in place for kid with autism, or they could put you in touch with the RE director. We have worked closely with our RE directors & he’s been able to be an active part of his Sunday school class from day 1. Good luck!
hmm, I don’t know how I missed this blog discussion. Probably because I was busy moving at the time.
Like Lisa, I’m a Unitarian Universalist. My husband isn’t. Like Lisa mentioned, the churches are quite different from each other. The church in my hometown didn’t have an active Welcoming Congregation policy and its RE program was sorely lacking. The director was a college student and the curriculum that year was about understanding Christianity, of all things. The lessons were abstract and over-generalized. I took my son briefly but he was very lost there.
Here in Tucson I’ve been wanting to reintroduce the concept of church. There are Christian churches here that specialize in welcoming autism families. My therapist recommended a church to me once and I replied, “I’m not a Christian”. She didn’t understand why I wouldn’t want to attend a Protestant church. (She is Jewish)
I teach within the context of a school, where we are to teach ABOUT faith, not teach faith.
So it’s educational rather than spiritual.
that said, I teach RE in a very sensory way, breaking the stories down into sensory experiences or physical movements that the children can participate in, or feel.
Recently I had a lot of success with shadow puppets, and prior to that I’ve used dance to facilitate understanding.
I also developed a ‘numinous tent’ where children could feel some of the ‘awe and wonder’ type feelings associated with faith, but in a context where they felt safe.
I am happy to give a more specific answer if you want to let me know what particularly you are interested in.
Jo
I would like to know how you went about your Religious Education for Special People. Thank you.
I teach Autistics who are about that man’s son’s age in my class. I think, as with all things, it’s about small steps. Church and involvment with church – which is a very social environment, being as it is the coming together of people of faith – is a big challenge for someone with autism. Breaking down their spiritual development into smaller steps might not only help the child but also the parents, if you can see that you are achieving something it feels better than just keeping on looking at an end goal that you haven’t reached yet.
All autistics are different – of course, – so without more information on this child I’d be at a loss to give specific advice or suggestions, in my research in making religious education meaningful for pupils with special needs I have looked at simple activities like recognising other people in a familiar group, or being at ease sitting with other people. I tend to find the autistics I teach connect quickly with the ‘rules’ of a faith… but now I am in much vaguer waters.
I’d be interested to hear more.
Love
Jo
I had a congregant talk to me last Sunday about their son who is so “black & white” (father’s word) with his thought process that he is unable to understand why his father is so involved in the church. This young man is 10 years old and was diagnosed with autism as a baby. He has made significant strides in overcoming his disabilities but can’t seem grasp concepts such as helping other people much less the concept of God. His parents are wonderful folk but are concerned about his faith development. How can I help this young man and his parents? Is there a curriculum out there that addresses these issues?
Thank you Kristina, I look forward to your post.
Jo
Marilyn, thanks for that story about Joy—wonder how many other people think the same—-
Jo, I will incorporate your question—-
“I would be very interested to hear from people with autism about what is meaningful to them about their faith.”
—into a future post; thank you for it. Daniel Tammet in Born on a Blue Day speaks about himself and religion in one of the latter chapters.
I am a special needs teacher looking to teach RE in a meaningful (not just fact based) way to my class. A lot of what I have read here has been very positive, but also very focused on how the church should set a good example by being accepting and loving of people who are different – quite right too. I haven’t found anything about what faith means to people with autism. I would be very interested to hear from people with autism about what is meaningful to them about their faith.
Usual ways of teaching RE in school, e.g. telling the story of the good samaritan rely heavily on social understanding. We are told we should provide experiences of awe and wonder (as if these are something we can keep in a cupboard and bring out during a particular lesson). I am very interested in people’s own experiences of awe and wonder, and what triggered them. I, for example, remember being in awe of the colours in an oil slick as a child.
Our daughter “Joy” has autism/PDD. We couldn’t attend church for years. I grew up next door to an Epiphany church, we have been going there for about 2 years. We & Joy love it! Joy had her 1st communion last year. When she drank the wine she said, “Yuk, I’d rather have Juicy Juice!” Father John said, “I love your honesty, Joy.”
1831 days ago
[...] at AutismVox, Kristina Chew posts about a conference last year, on autism and advocacy, that included discussion of religious [...]
I think that the major problem with christianity, is the idea that you rely on something other your self.
For example, I have seen a christian pray and obsess about getting a new car. He was focused on it. He eventually got it. Gave the credit to jesus of course. Eventually, he had difficulty making the payments. He missed a couple. But he reasoned why would jesus give him a car if he would lose it. The car was repossed. Crises in faith ensued.
He instead of faith in jesus had faith in himself with the powerful realization he could have anything in life he worked towards it. He would have realized His reponsibility was more than the “faith” to obtain the car but the stewardship to hold and maintain the car rather than leaving it up to jesus.
I think the most powerful faith is faith in oneself couple being cognizant with the full responsibility of what you wish for.
I found that in my life coming to the realization that
a) no one was looking out for me
b) I am ultimately responsible for my own well being
c)despite BS and a harsh unforgiving world and stupid mean people, I can get out of life exactly what I put in. The exact antithesis of religion.
Now How mean and stupid people and your current life situation can have real impact on how far you go. I am not blind to that. But this is extremely important to understand otherwise you will never get anywhere fast at all.
Life is all about making yourself a better person Not daddy or mommy makeing you better or god making you a better person with a better life.
All about self improvement and developing the skills for that.no matter how painful. applies to NT and autistic alike.
We are Unitarian Universalist, & although accessibility to RE for children with special needs is pretty much left up to individual churches, we have a “Welcoming Congregation” policy that covers all aspects of church life & tries to make congregations aware of the needs of many different minorities. RE is a big priority to our denomination, so it’s pretty uncommon to find a church without an active Sunday school. Brendan was the first child in our Sunday school diagnosed with autism (I emphasise diagnosed…), so we made sure that both our RE director & his Sunday school teachers were aware of his needs, plus we were his teachers until first grade. We were very fortunate to have a retired psychologist attatch herself to Brendan as a de-facto one-on-one aide his first year without one of us as his teacher. She has been a special friend to Brendan ever since & his first real adult mentor outside of the family. Since we both still teach other age groups we are in the Sunday school every week & accessible for questions & concerns. Brendan is valued for his contributions to class, in spite of his sometimes difficult behaviours, & he has a bunch of friends at church.
Being involved in church has been invaluable to our family as a way to expand our boundaries of safe places for Brendan to go. He is often challenged at church by tics & OCD thoughts, but it remains a safe place for him & we are spared the looks & comments that we sometimes get in public because most everyone knows that we are an autism family. :) . Another unforeseen effect of our involvement at church has been mentoring other families whose children have been diagnosed with autism. We have shared our journey as an autism family with our church family all along the way & have been able to share out positive message to everyone we meet at church. My husband is also the preschool teacher & has been able to reach out to families who have shared concerns with him about their kids. It’s very comforting to know we are making a concrete contribution to our church community just by being what we are…
Lee, thank you for sharing about that—–will definitely pass on the information about the program to Jim and others! Jim is planning to start Charlie in a program here in our town, too.
Fr Blaker: I should also note, while we live in New Jersey now, I am originally from Oakland.
Thanks for that Kristina. And to all commenters as well.
Very positive and heartening.
Rory and I, hope one day, Mark too, will be able to make his First Holy Communion.
We are fortunate to have a religious education director who wanted to individually instruct MJ and SJ. She has done this for two years now, and is wonderful with them. She uses their special interests to help motivate them, and I bring Stitch, our therapy dog to help smooth out anxious moments. Previous to that, I did home bound teaching with the regular materials provided by our church. Both MJ and SJ have made their First Communions with peers, but with me close by during the service to provide support.
Kim Newgass from the CT chapter of ASA offers a program in Faith based communities-she can be reached through their website: http://www.autismsocietyofct.org
Thanks to Fr Blaker and Susan for writing here about those programs and to AS man regarding the importance of images— and how technological is Boardmaker…..
Kids with autism take Communion…
New Jersey church holds special Masses for autistic parishioners and their families
“If Jesus did anything, he welcomed all types of people,” said the Very Rev. John R. O’Connell. “I think these people who are differently able…
I just mailed in a questionnaire from UMASS Boston for a study on how resources such as culture, religion and social support help families to adapt to having a child with autism as a member of their family. We travel to another town (just like we do for all our therapies and services) that offered a CCD classes for children on the autism spectrum. It was started by a mother of a son on the autism spectrum and her Parish’s religious education director who worked with the Diocese of Massachusetts and staffed by volunteers. Our home trainer’s mother was involved in this program and we met with her to discuss the curriculum, the class size, and the teaching methods. The materials are well suited to his learning style including a series of social stories with pictures that incorporate family members and familiar images into the visuals. His making First Holy Communion was important to us and it was written as an IEP goal. We attend Mass at our Parish but still attend the weekly CCD’s classes elsewhere to prepare for his next Sacrament of Holy Confirmation. We tried to get a program like this at our parish, but the religious education director was not interested. She was not comfortable with the “technolgy”–Mayer Johnson Boardmaker software and a color laser printer.