Autism Advocacy in Religious Settings
September 17, 2006 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
One session of the conference on Autism and Advocacy that will be held on October 27th, Friday, at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus in New York City is advocacy for persons with autism in religious settings. Speakers from different faith traditions will be speaking about “the dignity of the human person and a ’spirituality of presence’ for autistic persons within communities of worship and learning”; the speakers include parents and long-standing advocates for individuals with developmental disabilities like Rev. Bill Gaventa, M.Div., of the Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities. (The afternoon panel of the conference will be devoted to “Advocacy & Self-Advocacy in the Formation of Persons and Community.”)
Marla McCrorie teaches a Sunday School class for special needs children at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Anchorage, Alaska. An article in today’s Anchorage Daily News, Sunday school strives to give autistic children knowledge of the divine: God in few words, describes the experience of two autistic boys, 7-year-old Gage Puff and 6-year-old Jathan Bozeman, in McCrorie’s class.
McCrorie substitute teaches at Bowman Elementary School, where she has also assisted special needs students. Jathan does not yet speak and his senses are easily overloaded.
The women [McCrorie and Tia Jennings, a volunteer] are comforting but not overly sympathetic when the boys don’t cooperate. When Gage finished gluing a sun onto a piece of paper, he crawled off his chair onto the floor. Jennings said, “No,” and told him to get back up.
He said, “Train.” And went to play with the train set.
When McCrorie wants Jathan to participate she uses few words: “This is Jathan’s spot. Jathan sits here.” She points to a place on the floor and hands him some colorful fabric. He throws it down and squawks.
She moves on.
The purpose of the Sunday School program is to help “integrate autistic kids into everyday life,” to help them adapt and adjust; parents say that there is no other program like it in Anchorage. McCrorie describes her views on autistic children and spirituality:
“I believe they have every right and potential to connect to God and experience and enjoy him the way the rest of us do,” she said. “They might have a spiritual giftedness that would be untapped if no one tried to introduce them to God.”
My son Charlie has attended church with us. We think that it is important for Charlie to be a part of a religious community, and also that he be able to participate in that community in the ways that he is able, even if this means that he may not always be able to control his talking at certain times, or if he may need to get up and walk around. Jim Hukill, executive director of the Christian Council on Persons with Disabilities in Florida, notes that only about 15 percent of all churches in the US provide some sort of special services for disabled individuals.
“It’s not nearly as large as it needs to be,” he said.
On October 27th, we hope you can join us in New York to talk about how to advocate for advocacy for persons with autism in communities of worship—and about advocacy in educational and many other settings.
Our church is a huge part of the “village” that’s helping us to raise B. We are fortunate in a couple of ways, in that B was born to us after quite a few years of membership in our church, & that there’s a part of our weekly service called “joys & concerns” where we may share the important events in our lives with the congregation. In this way we have shared our journey with B & his diagnoses since it all began. We were B’s first Sunday School teachers, & when it became obvious that it was time to turn him over to others, he was well-known & welcomed by the adults who took over. He has been with the same kids since he was a toddler & so they all know him & seem to understand him. We have made sure to stay in close contact with our RE Director & his teachers, & have kept them up to date with ways to help him cope with transitions, the OCD, etc. As B has gotten older & more obviously “different” we have had to do a bit more proactive advocacy, but we’ve never had negative reactions from anyone at church about how he behaves. I don’t think we’d be nearly as sane as we are without our church community. I am hoping to do a lay-led service soon about autism & autism activism & I’m really looking forward to it.
At my old church there was a little girl on the spectrum & who may or may not had other neurological cooties (my bet is slower processing, her grandma said MR. I talked to the kid and doubt it). It was a tiny church with mostly old people and B was just B. The sunday school teacher didn’t want to deal with her, which was sad, but after Divine Liturgy there was a coffee hour and B and I would talk, she’d tell me what she learned (or heard but didn’t grok) and we’d talk about it.
So that was her Sunday school…sweet kid, I was mad at the Sunday School teacher for not wanting to work with “that kind” of kid (talk about fighting words!). And I’d have understood if B was aggressive or unable to participate, but she WAS. She should not have had “stairway sunday school”-we sat on the stairs between the coffee hour place and the church itself-because if you believe we’re all God’s children, that means EVERY child.
Now my hackles are raised. Gah. At least I managed to express to B that the teacher was the one with the problem, not her (after the stunned silence when she said ‘they don’t want me with the other kids because I have…au..tis..m”. and the “me too! And a lot of other wonderful people do too.”). Never had a 7 year old inform me that she’s autistic, much less that that’s why people don’t want her around….I really hope they kept up with the advocacy skills they were teaching her….
Rambling at 3:30 AM. Mea culpa.
Kassi,
I’m not surprised, actually. My church in Vancouver wasn’t so great that way, either. There was this absolutely great kid who had some kind of problem (I suspect brain damage due to seizure activity, though his older brother was AS so he could have been on the spectrum as well) who the other leaders for the junior youth group had no patience for. It really made me angry.
I taught Sunday School to the kids in grade 1 & 2 for a year, and the other teachers (who were all parents) were impressed with my ability to maintain control and deal effectively with behaviour problems that, apparently, they couldn’t have managed as well. (I was just applying what I knew from my work to the nonautistic children in my class. Funny how it worked.)
Jim talked to a Sunday School teacher at the church in our new town and he got the impression that, while there are many autistic children who live here, no one had asked about religious education for them.
Rambling much appreciated, and suggestions too!