My son asked to be baptized last Easter Sunday. His decision to profess Christ publicly and the day that resulted was an incredible celebration of our church community coming alongside him as a child of God.  It was also evidence that it is worth the extra effort and adaptation we have done over the past 14 years to facilitate his participation at church.  We started with Veggie Tales.  Many Sundays we sat in the Cry room and just trusted he was listening.  Other Sundays we stayed just for the music. Other Sundays I'd stay with him in Sunday school.  Most important you need to fuel your own faith and relationship with Jesus and from that will flow his understanding and some creative ways of plugging in to a family of faith.  We used Social stories and I carried PECS cards on a ring to cue him when to stand, sit, stay quiet, and sing.  I took the church program and drew PECS-like icons on the "schedule." Now he follows that and writes on the key word outline provided. Check out my blog to hear more about the baptism and the song he wrote as his testimony. I will post some more of our favorite resources like Judy Rogers music, Special Kids Videos on Going to Church, and Studying God's Word Bible study workbooks.

Andrea Moriarty www.autismunplugged.blogspot.com

turmangirl

Hello...I'm brand new here and your post was the first one to catch my eye.   My granddaughter has autism.  She is 8 now and the absolute joy (and heartache) of my life.  I am not a frequent church goer, but an avid believer..(I think they call us "believers but not belongers")..I began talking to Trinity about angels when she was about 2.  It was a good introduction to spiritual issues and we both share a love of angels that has grown over the last years.  Not a day goes by that we don't have these discussions.  I collect angels now and they are constant reminders of spirit and God.  If it makes him ask questions, you are on your way to teaching..Just wanted to share.

Here is a link to Project Adam's Pew:

http://www.project-adams-pew.org/default.aspx

This project was started as a result of public fallout of a case where a Catholic priest had a restraining order issued against a family in his parish bringing their teenaged autistic son to church.

Here is the Autism Society of America link to a page on how to facilitate inclusion of a person with an ASD in church activities:

http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=life_fam_religion

Well I was raised Mormon (obviously not strict)

in any case we were taught that children like

ours are automatically "saved" by grace. Normally

mormon kids are babtized at 8 but Marcel wasnt.

We believe that these children truely are Gods

choicest spirits and that they wont be judged like

you and I will be. So see Michael really is a little

angel =)

Any journey (even one of a thousand miles) has to begin with just a single step (followed by another step, then another, etc.)  My son always expected that there were no steps to learning - that he just would somehow know the whole thing.  I don't think religion can be taught in its entirety - only little steps that can help a person find their own faith.

Perhaps the first step to teaching formal religion would be to devise a plan to teach Michael how to sit quietly as part of an audience.  Social stories are great for breaking down complex tasks into small concrete steps.