Collegedale Camp Meeting 2023: Expanding His Kingdom

Georgia-Cumberland Conference

Disabilities

Shaun Brooks

How to Create a Safe Space for Children with Autism

So just want to say thank you everyone for coming and being a part of our presentation.

But this is being recorded for maybe in the future others can benefit from it.

Lord we thank you for your goodness, we thank you for your mercies and as we look at this important topic and how to create a safe space for children with autism, we pray Lord that you will help our churches to be that sort of community that is safe, that is loving, and allows those with disabilities to feel empowered in Christ's name.

So how to create a safe space for children with autism, I am glad to say I am the husband of but 1 wife with 4 children.

And yes, autism is a topic that is familiar to our home, with our family, with our children, and we are hoping that from our experience and what we've gone through, it can be a blessing, a benefit to others.

Now what the overview for today will look at what is autism spectrum disorder, diagnosis, treatment, and the role of the church.

Now the history and background of autism comes 1 with Leo Kanner, an Austrian psychiatrist in 1943.

And it's just important to look at that year, 1943.

He first used the term autism when he studied 11 children within his clinic and realized similar behaviors such as aloneness a lack of emotional contact repetitive routines Muteness abnormal speech, so that was something that you know he was checking the box seeing you know I'm seeing all of these signs.

He's coming up with that term autism and around the same time in 1944, so 1943, 1944, you had Hans Asperger, an Austrian pediatrician, and he also recognized children that he was studying that exhibited intense interest in particular subjects and appropriate social approaches to other people, poor coordination, lack of common sense, good grammar, but monotone speech, and also no two-way conversation.

They were coming up with these discoveries at about the same time.

So you probably would be familiar with the Asperger's name.

And Asperger, Presently, for some children who would be diagnosed with Asperger, the latest DSM manual, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, they now listed Asperger under autism spectrum disorder because they're trying to move away from the title Asperger, that's 1, but they also see commonalities between Asperger and also autism as Kanner had pinpointed.

But Asperger, Hans Asperger, during the time of Nazi Germany, some believe that he had sent some children with disabilities towards areas where they would probably more or less euthanized or gotten rid of.

And so though he said no he was trying to help and defend there have been some disputes with that with some scholars and so they're moving away from the title but given credit still this is 1 of his observations and it also became a title for many of the children under diagnosis.

So we're looking at the background history and just to repeat for...

Nice to meet you Pearl, Shawn and My family here.

So Leon Kanner, Leo Kanner was the 1 who also discovered autism as well as Hans S.

Now, what is autism spectrum disorder based on what they've all seen and what other psychiatrists have now put together?

According to the CDC, it's a developmental disability.

That means it's with you from an early age, it's developing with you throughout life, it's lifelong.

It can cause significant social, communication, and behavioral challenges.

These 3 prime areas, social, communication, behavioral challenges.

Now, you'll notice that I have an umbrella there because autism spectrum represents, you know, spectrum is a wide array of colors and such.

Well, it's an umbrella that takes in all of these conditions, classic autism, high functioning autism, and they're moving away from high functioning and low functioning, but most people still can resonate with high functioning or low functioning.

And childhood disintegrative disorder, Asperger's syndrome, and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, But they're all categorized under 1 title, autism spectrum disorder.

So just to share that, now with the DSM manual, if you had the symptoms of say Asperger's syndrome, they would diagnose you with autism spectrum disorder.

Some individuals like that aspect, but others may still prefer to be registered as Asperger.

But presently, when it comes to treatment, if you're listed under Autism Spectrum Disorder, there's a wide array of treatment available for you.

Because again, the DSM manual has said this is something, here's ASD, So parents may struggle with the title, struggle with the term, but there's also treatment that can come your way once you have this diagnosis.

Now, I share with you that it affects the communication, behavior, social, also the play and sensory impairment.

So when it comes to, let's just call it communication, this is where you may find that a child having difficulty sharing and expressing what they're feeling.

They may be repetitive in some instances, whether in play or behavior.

Social interaction, oftentimes many with autism will be lonely.

They may seek to be separate and apart, but at the same time they're longing for companionship, longing for fellowship, but they have a difficult time interacting.

Sensory impairment, sometimes when it comes to hearing, taste, different sensory, they can be in sensory overload, which is sometimes you may see some in the church covering their ears, or it may just get overwhelming, even with food.

Some foods may taste a certain way, may feel, while everybody else is eating, they're saying, you know, this is strange to me.

And there could be odd behaviors And when it comes to play, they can be repetitive, nature in play.

Sometimes they'll be playing with the children, and all of a sudden they stop and go off to do something else.

If you want to take pictures, you can, or if you want to take notes, which way would you prefer?

All right, so You can take the pictures, which can be helpful.

Just want to make sure that you have all the resources.

And so, these 2 slides will kind of help to break it down a little bit.

You may have difficulty mixing with other children, sometimes resist learning, resist change in routine.

And routine is a big thing, whereby sometimes we take it for granted, but routine for someone with autism is actually like a safety net for them.

It gives them some form of feeling of security, that they have control over the environment in some degree.

And as a pastor, it opened my eyes as well, because sometimes we want to shift up the worship program and then you'll see some individuals, adults as well, who have probably not been diagnosed, but it just irritates them when there's a slight change in the worship program.

So this is where sometimes you need to give a heads up and we'll come to that later.

Sometimes they may use people as tools to satisfy needs.

So a child may say, can I have this toy, not to interact with the other child, but just to enjoy the toy itself?

An inappropriate laughing, giggling, no fear of real dangers.

So sometimes you have to really watch the child as they play around the home.

And I'm saying child, you know, it's maybe easier to understand with the children, but when they grow older, that can manifest itself as well throughout their life.

Sometimes not cuddly, marked physical overactivity, no eye contact, so it's a little bit more challenging for them to look at you, to hold that conversation for a long period of time.

And sometimes you'll find an inappropriate attachment to objects, spins objects, sustained odd play, sometimes destructive and aggressive at times, and sometimes aloof, standoffish.

I say sometimes because you may see these attributes, and what you see in 1 person you will not see in another.

So if you've seen 1 person with autism, you've only seen 1.

So we have to understand that each person is still unique and different.

When I shared this slide to my church family, I had individuals, like you could see their countenance changing because they're now realizing, wait, wait, my child may have these or my relative may have.

And 1 mother got up and she shared that, you know, for many years she's seen these in her child, but she kind of denied it as parents.

She just said, you know, they'll grow out of it and such.

And sadly, she began to cry because he was now of an age where she couldn't really make a decision on his health anymore.

And the help that he could have received basically was loss.

So is this something that is needed in churches?

And the next slide will kind of highlight that, because autism presently affects 1 in 36 children.

So if you can see from 2000, it was 1 in 150, and you can see the numbers growing less and less, 1 in 88, 1 in 54, 1 in 44, 1 in 36.

When I started my doctoral program, the number was actually 1 in 68.

But it was then by the time I was finishing, it was 1 in 54.

So just to say that because of more accurate diagnosis, because there's less stigma surrounding autism and more knowledge as well going around social media.

You have a month in April to talk about autism awareness, more teachers are aware, there's greater diagnosis and accurate diagnosis that's going on.

So it's a good thing as well as it can be now concerning because why is this number so high?

Some more statistics, we see that ASD is nearly 4 times more common among boys than among girls.

So it's something that affects a lot of the children.

You've probably heard of Rett's disorder or Rett's syndrome.

That affects girls more than it affects the boys.

This is why autism is different from Rett's syndrome.

And an estimated 5.4 million adults in the United States have ASD.

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Disabilities

How to Create a Safe Space for Children with Autism

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