Vacation Bible School for Kids with Autism
Tuesday July 17, 2007
I've noticed that a lot of readers have mentioned church and faith in their blogs. Both have helped many families cope and thrive with a child on the autism spectrum. Yet often faith communities have a tough time making people with autism feel truly welcome. That's why I was so impressed by an article I read recently about a vacation Bible school in Corpus Christi that's set up specifically for kids with special needs - with a special focus on kids with autism. The article makes it clear that all - not just kids with high functioning autism - are welcome:
Christine D'Elicio, attorney and mother of a 7-year-old son with autism, helped organize the event. "It'll be nice to have a place to go where you don't feel judged," D'Elicio said. "We welcome everyone -- headbangers, screamers and total meltdowns. We will not stare."What are your thoughts about this program? do you know of others like it? or have you and your child felt excluded from faith-based activities?
Comments
I welcome any activity that does not exclude any child ,but can’t help wondering about the content of this program.It said vacation bible school.
What exactly does that mean.What activities were there.A pitty that that was not mwentioned:I would like to know more about it.Have heard from my friend who has two austistic young girls that in London there are two public schools that provide activities during the summerholidays.All special needs help is available.Way good.During all six weeks of the summerholidays:no one gets excluded there either.From age three upwards.Great for kids that need daily structure in their lifes.Autism doesn’t suddenly stop during the summerholidays.And this was organised by the citycouncil and not by a christian organisation.And every one was welcome there too.
My compliments.
Hope that all parents with a child that suffer from the autism spectrum find their child an activity they can take part of.Based on religion or not.
Hope you all have great summerholidays,Rob.
A program like that would not work for my child. The screamers and the head bangers would terrify him. That’s why he had to leave his special needs classroom for homeschooling. But for kids who are less sensitive, this might be a good idea.
I think that this is really cool actually that this church group is reaching out because I had to stay home for months from church because Joshua’s behavior wasn’t acceptable. And I am the daughter of a minister and wife of a chaplain in training. Our church has now a special ed teacher that works with the special kids while they are mainstreamed with the “regular” kids. I think that this works very well for my son. He isn’t a head banger, but not he is a sensory seeker! (climber)
My autistic 4 years old nephew is autistic .He finish summer school .any more summer programs in Chicago Please.
Thanks
I say “Bravo”. I think it is great that these women saw the need and did something about it. My hat is off to these women. I wish that more people would take some action and do something that would help enrich the lifes of these children with autism. My grandson is 4 year old and is autistic. It amazes me that no one really knows what will work and will not work because each child is an individual. So, I feel you do what ever work for your child. Our children are work in progress and maybe some day we will all see the results.
God Bless and continue the fight
Sue
We have a VBS for persons with Special Needs at Calvary Baptist Church in Alexandria, Louisiana. We adapt VBS material from a special curriculum and typical curriculum. Each child has a trained buddy if needed as they rotate through Bible Study, Music, Recreation, Missions and arts and crafts. A luau will be featured on the last night of VBS. Parents have a Bible Study while persons with Special Needs are in VBS. For 2008 Calvary’s Loving Care Special Needs VBS will be Tuesday through Friday evenings, June 17-20, 6:00 to 8:00pm.
This is great, and rare. My church bacc.cc has a program called spiritual resource that is basically a children’s sunday school class but catered to those with special needs. I hope that more and more churches follow.
My mother has been running a Vacation Bible school for children with special needs for the last 13 years at Cross of Hope Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The numbers vary from year to year, but we usually have anywhere from 10-25 children.
Like Cheryl, each child is paired with a trained volunteer that is their buddy and teacher throughout the week. This allows this program to customize the teaching materials to each individual child, so they get the most out the the experience while still being in a group setting and making new friends.
For the last 13 years my mother has been using existing Vacation Bible School themes. Unfortunately, most of the programs are too advanced for children with special needs so she has been developing her own materials and program based on their themes.
It would be great to see more programs like this out there, and more resources available for such programs.
I admire her for starting such a program out our church - as it is the only one we have heard of in the Albuquerque, New Mexico area - and the children and parents love it!