Religious Education for Autistic Children
May 11, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
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.’”
We had a very difficult time finding a Sunday school that would accommodate Joey. Even with explainations, attempts to train, providing instructions, providing all the needed equipment (such as vibrators, cushions, and picture cards), etc., since he would not sit on the floor with the other children, we were told- often pretty directly- that he was not welcome in Sunday school. We’ve finally found one that never even blinked an eye- they are hapy to speak with us, and will “deal” with him even on bad days. Its not perfect; thee teachers arenot special educators, and don’t have much experience with autism; but at least they make it clear that he is welcome, and speak with the other children about diversity and that you love everyone, even if they are different from you.
There’s a program in our town that Jim wants to start Charlie—the teacher uses ABA to help kids understand what to do.
Lisa at Life in the New Republic writes quite frequently about her church and her son, too.
I am a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Oakland in California. Four years ago I was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome.
Special Religious Education is difficult especially for small parishes with few resources. My diocese has a program called SPRED for special needs people, which helps, but not all parishes have local SPRED group. My parish is very small (about 300 active families) and we have tried to handle such things case-by-case. However, prior to my arrival three years ago, there had been no religious education apart from the school for over ten years. There was no money to hire anyone and no volunteers until this past fall when I hired a part-time (5 hours a week Director of Religious Education). Even so, last year we had a boy with high-functioning autism who made his First Communion. He was so happy! I worked with the family and the school’s second grade teacher to help them do some at-home instruction.
Fr John,
Thank you for helping spread awareness and helping autistic children. I just wish others were as accomodating and understanding as your parish. Unfortunately, I have found so much bigotry against us in religion. Quite ironic considering whom Jesus ministered too isn’t it? My son was denied entry into a Lutheran church’s preschool, even before he attended because they would not accept autistic children. Another church did accept him, the Quakers. Guess what? He is one of their best “students” according to the director and a pleasure to have in class. I’m sure you are aware of the child in Arizona who was denied communion because of his autism and how it interfered with him accepting the “blessed” sacrament, according to canon law. Truly disgusting in my opinion. Again, thank you for what you are doing.
Unfortunately, most of our parish schools are not able to accomodate special education. Most schools have no special education teachers at all.
I think religions are essentially misleading. As if some one is really looking out for you.
I think Taoism/wicca or the western hermetic tradition is best for those on the spectrum. It is image based and teaches self reliance. see the book about wicca called drawing down the moon.
You learn how to see things as archetypes and learn to assume their attributes by “becoming” them.
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.
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…..
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 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.
Fr Blaker: I should also note, while we live in New Jersey now, I am originally from Oakland.
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.
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…
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.
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.”
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.
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.
Thank you Kristina, I look forward to your post.
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?
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 would like to know how you went about your Religious Education for Special People. Thank you.
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
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)
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!
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.
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.
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.?
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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
@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 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.
Sherry, feel free to contact me and I’ll give you some tips. My email is christschool at mac dot com
@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—–
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?
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