Dan at Necessary Roughness published a good post on autism.
I keep his blog linked in the left column.
I have no direct experience with autism and I am not well read on the subject. Congregations need to relate to children with special needs, from the gifted to the profoundly handicapped. Autism is a major challenge for parents, so the congregation should be a place where the family experiences love, understanding, and genuine help.
Why speak about the Gospel producing good works among believers when special needs are neglected?
I have had someone disabled in my household ever since 1974, with a few no-problem years in the middle. That experience has brought us into contact with many rare medical conditions, dozens of doctors, and famous medical centers. It is a special privilege to know families dealing with unusual medical conditions. The numbers are much higher than people realize, because they tend to avoid contact.
Instead of saying, "Oh no," people should say, "Here is a chance for me to learn, to see the world from another perspective."
KJV 2 Corinthians 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
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JR has left a new comment on your post "An Important Post on Autism":
Jesus Cares (www.jcministries.org) is an organization that provides a worship service especially designed for the developmentally disabled. They have worship services in several WELS/ELS churches.
I was fortunate enough to attend some of these services, and it truly is wonderful to see the Word at work.
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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "An Important Post on Autism":
Thanks for the link to this posting. There are some congregations that have been able to enroll children who are in the Autism spectrum in their schools. I personally know of some cases. We tried to do this with our son, who is now eleven years old. He is in the Autism spectrum, is non-verbal, but is fairly high functioning compared to others. We began the process about one year ago. There were a lot of restrictions placed upon us. My wife and I believe that we were set up for failure from the start. One important point in the post states that the church should listen to the parents. That never happened with us. Here is an interesting coincidence. Yesterday, we received a letter from the Board of Education stating that our son would not be able to be enrolled in the school in the coming school year. My wife's dogged persistence with the Board of Education wore them out. Last week, one of the Board members told my wife that having an Autistic child could most likely shorten the careers of the two new teachers. I knew that the rejection letter would be coming soon when that little tidbit was told to us. There will be others who will come after our son. What will they do then? I will not even begin to list the challenges that many parents face with a special needs child. One of the pastors told my wife and I that he could not even begin to understand the challenges that we have. After I thought about this, I should have said, "maybe you ought to make a feeble attempt to try and understand". We have many members who have tried to give us support. This is so typical of the way WELS laity are. They will be sincere with you, but will cower under the authority of Boards and called workers. I have left the congregation. The way that we were handled with our son's situation speaks volumes about the leadership of this congregation. It is a symptom of a greater problem.
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GJ - The congregation and pastor should not be one more burden for the parents and child.
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Schottey has left a new comment on your post "An Important Post on Autism":
MLC has a class called "Teaching the Exceptional Child" where they cover the entire gamut of learning and developmental disabilities.
However, working in the direct support field (as well as having a mentally challenged and mentally ill adopted brother) I do not believe the run of the mill MLC graduate has the resources to tackle the average "exceptional child"
In my field, I've met many wonderful teachers who have gone to school specifically for the purpose of teaching in a special needs class room. Having a degree based around the situation is a lot better than one class.
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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "An Important Post on Autism":
JR,
First of all, the Jesus Cares Ministries does a great job in assisting parents, congregations, and schools with materials and resources. We have gone to two of their conferences that were in our area. We have also communicated extensively with many of their staff members. I have nothing but praise for JCM. The special worship services that they have formulated are still liturgical in structure.
Also, I agree with you that many schools are too small to take on a special needs child by themselves, especially full time. But that is where the parents and JCM can try to bridge the gap. This Board of Education had little contact with JCM and did the exact opposite of what JCM recommended. As parents, we did a lot of the homework for the Board. All that they would have had to do was follow our lead. We found out that in some of the schools, the Board of Education was barely involved with any of the details. In our situation, the teacher was not even solicited for her input. The Board exercised their authority, and that was it. It was not the outcome that was so distressing. It was more the way in which it was all handled. The comment about the teachers potentially shortening their careers is a fitting example of their attitude.
