Autism in the Church

[Sherri]

Now that doctors are saying one in every 150 children will have some sort of autism, how will our church's children's programs be affected? We have two little boys right now that are autistic that I know of, and possibly a few more. We have had to start a "special needs" ministry in the Children's Dept. with workers just for those boys. It's very hard, because they hit and yell, but they don't understand it as misbehaving. They are over-stimulated and don't know how to deal with it.

It's difficult for the parents of other kids, because sometimes they get attacked or hurt. But I feel so sorry for the parents of the autistic kids, because they are trying their best and I don't want them to feel that they are not welcome in our church.

We had another lady with a fifteen year old autistic son, who was in pretty bad shape, and she finally just decided to stay home because her son was way too big for the kid's department, but she could not possibly keep him in the sanctuary because he disrupted.

Has anyone else faced this in their churches? Any suggestions????