Teaching the Gospel to Kids with Special Needs

[Tri21Mom]

Hello, all. I've been looking through this board for other threads about this topic and I didn't find any so I thought I'd start one. I've noticed that this board hasn't been very active recently, which is a bit of a bummer, but maybe there will be more interest the closer we get to school starting....I hope so anyway

Our sons both have Down syndrome, the youngest also is very likely on the Autism spectrum. We're looking for ministry resources for special needs kids. More specifically, I guess what I want to know is, has anyone found any good books or videos to help kids with special needs understand the Gospel message, other than Veggie Tales or the like? We can talk to our sons about what Christ did for them on the cross until we're blue in the face, using words that we think they may understand, but we have no idea if they comprehend what we're saying. Our older son is 13 and can speak, though he has significant problems with articulation. Our younger son is 7 and is completely non-verbal. We just don't want to underestimate what they know, or have the ability to understand because they can't acknowledge it. We had both of them "dedicated" as infants in church, but that was OUR pledge to raise them in Christ, not THEIR reception of Christ as Savior. My husband and I are just as concerned for their souls as we are for their bodies (if not more so) and we don't think that it should just be a given that God will give them a pass because of their limited mental capacities; however, we do trust in God's Sovereign Grace and Mercy and we know that He loves our sons more than we do. We feel blessed that He gave them to us and we're very aware of our responsibility as their parents to lay the foundation in Christ and hope (and pray!) that we're doing the best we can.

They both LOVE music and we have exposed them to different genres of Christian music since they were infants. Both of them love Gospel and Southern Gospel music, especially Gaither Homecoming music, and they will watch those videos over and over again. There's a lot of good theology in those songs so maybe some of it is getting in.

What makes our situation worse is that we have no home church at the moment because we have not been able to find a local church that has a special needs children's ministry. This is a HUGE disappointment. There are more and more kids being diagnosed on the Autism spectrum nowadays and it doesn't even seem like the Church as a whole is making much of an effort to accommodate families with special needs kids (at least not locally). We need church homes just as much as (if not more than) families with typically-developing kids. So, needless to say, we just stay home on Sundays and our boys are growing up without knowing what it's like to grow up in church. This breaks my heart, but we're doing the best that we can.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any resources or suggestions that anyone has. Thanks and God bless!
MJ

 

[beaverpond]

I am sending your question to my youth program headquarters to see what they have to say as to whether there is something available in our curriculum. It might even start a conversation about working on something. If you could help me with a number of kids afflicted with this, it might cause them to get creative and do something in this area...who knows.

 

[Tri21Mom]

I am sending your question to my youth program headquarters to see what they have to say as to whether there is something available in our curriculum. It might even start a conversation about working on something. If you could help me with a number of kids afflicted with this, it might cause them to get creative and do something in this area...who knows.

Thanks so much for your reply.

Are you asking about the incidence of children born with Down syndrome? Or perhaps children with a dual-diagnosis of DS and Autism? Unfortunately, worldwide an average of 9 out of 10 mothers choose to abort their children when given a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, so the incidence of children born with it is shrinking; however, the number of children being diagnosed with Autism is rising. The current statistic in the United States is 1 in 68. The average age of diagnosis is 2 (https://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/cdc-publishes-2014-community-report-autism). It effects at least twice as many boys as girls, I believe.

So the number of children born with Down syndrome may be dwindling, but the number of children being diagnosed with some form of Autism Spectrum Disorder is growing. The need for special needs ministries will remain regardless of the looks of the little faces in the seats.

Thanks again for your help. It's much appreciated and I look forward to hearing something back regarding whether or not there are resources for special needs ministry, or for teaching kids about the Gospel at home.

God Bless,
MJ

 

[beaverpond]

I have already heard back, there is a way of using our current curriculum and placing a modified label with easier to understand language without it losing the meaning of the verse. I have checked out some of the verses and depending on your child, I can do whatever age group you think is appropriate for him. I have handbooks for grades K-2 and handbooks for 3-4 and then 5-6. The older they get, the more complex they get. The k-2 even have Bible stories with them inside each of the three handbooks. Although if it is something that if you want to order, they do not come cheap and I can link you to the page for the handbooks and the page for printing the labels if you would like.

 

[hedrick]

In our church I think 1:68 is too low for autism, by at least a factor of 2. I teach 7th and 8th grade. We almost always have someone on the spectrum in the class, and sometimes as a leader. That implies more like 1:30. But most of these large numbers are high-function autistics. At least in my experience they don’t need special material, just a teacher who is flexible. Outside the autism area, I’ve also dealt with a kid who was almost unable to communicate, though he was really sharp, and another with noticeably low intelligence, but still able to function normally. (A couple of years later he served as a deacon, and supposedly did a good job.)

All of these have been fine in a normal class, though with one Asperger’s kid I had to be really careful to explain the meaning of non-literal speech. Note that our kids are really tolerant. I’ve never seen signs of making fun of those who are different, though in one case a kid on the spectrum almost came to blows because he didn’t understand how his actions would be interpreted by the others. A quick intervention fixed that, mostly. We run a loose classroom. Kids can move around if necessary, partly to help with ADD, etc. (My theory is that all young teen guys have ADD to some extent or other), and partly because we want the Church to feel more like a family than school. Yes, we can still do lessons even when the kids aren't nailed to their chairs. We had a high school kid ride herd on one student with Asperger’s for a while. He tended to wander out into the hall.

But none of this would work with someone who is unable to comprehend normal material. For that you might consider material aimed at a younger age. Cokesbury used to have a specialized curriculum, but I can’t find it anymore.