Victoria - Well, welcome to the third segment of this week. It's week seven, and here we are already on the third part of it. And so now we are on our tools to support persons with autism part two, and you're going to hear a little bit more from me, and then a little bit from Barb. And so we're going to have a good time here. So let's get going. So sensory differences. This is a big piece of that autism spectrum set of differences, and I want to talk about those sensory differences for a bit. So here we go. We start with talking about the Big Five, shall we say, right? So, taste, smell, sight, hearing, touch. But there are two more senses that you might not be very familiar with, and so I want to show you those very quickly, and that is the vestibular sense. And I told you a little bit about my own story, that my vestibular sense can be a little bit off sometimes, and the proprioceptive sense. So here's, here's a little bit about those senses, and what I mean when I'm talking about these so sight, right? Obviously, we can see and interpret visual information, hearing to perceive sounds and their characteristics. Taste, we detect flavors through taste buds on the tongue, and actually have a friend who has very little taste because she's also missing her sense of smell. And so smell is the ability to detect odors and scents through the olfactory system right touch, while it's also it's the ability to sense pressure, temperature and texture through the skin. Think about the fact that this can be intentional of going and touching things, but it's also unintentional when other things touch you, and so we're taking in all of this sensory information through these different systems in our bodies, and two of these systems are the vestibular sense and the proprioceptive sense. So the vestibular sense is the sense of balance and spatial awareness or orientation that helps us to make equilibrium and coordinate our movement, and some of us struggle with that more than others. And so when you have a person with autism spectrum disorder, you might notice leaning against a wall quite often, or, you know, kind of a tippy kind of motion sometimes, because navigating their body in space could be a bit of a challenge. Proprioception is one of my favorite words. It's an occupational therapist kind of word, but it's really just talking about a sense of body awareness, so allowing us to know where our body parts are in space without looking at them. So the fact that I'm raising my arm up and down means I don't have to look at it to know that. But it can also be referring to, for example, the fact that I feel cold or I'm hungry or I'm tired, and kind of knowing what my body signals are telling me. And so again, these are all areas where you're going to notice something operating a little bit differently within a person with autism spectrum. So these are differences, sensory differences, that you will see coming out of an individual, and that might mean that there is a high sensitivity in these areas. It might mean that there is an under sensitivity in these areas. So then it takes a lot of input for it to register for this person. And so I want you to hear from Barb talk about them a little bit, but I just wanted to show you what we were talking about when we talked about all of the senses that can be involved in this. Barb - one of the most important things is to know what that sensory difference is, and then to be able to jump into that person's shoes, quote, unquote, and figure out what areas might be difficult in your setting, what one of those things do you need to alter or change in order to be better? So let's think about that. If it's hearing, if you have somebody who's really sensitive to hearing. Could you have some of those sound blockers? Remember that church I was talking to you about that just has them available for people to check out, provide a choice to leave, sometimes allowing some break tickets to be in the room to say, You know what, if it gets too loud, feel free to grab that. And you may go and do whatever. Having a choice to leave is sometimes providing the opportunity to stay because they know that they can leave, that could you change or alter the noise, make it a better noise, make it a softer noise, allow that individual to help. You choose the noise that can help, and then turning an unexpected noise into an expected one is almost always the ticket. So if you are using a CD player or whatever kind of player. If that person can push the on button, or that person can do this to get the band to start, you've now turned that into an expected noise, that person can prepare for it. So again, find out what the difference is. What can you do? What about vision? You know, can you have in your sanctuary, sort of a place that's a little bit more removed. Maybe there's a corner where people could worship, but they they're not going to be distracted by all of the vision around them. In a kids setting, you might have a classroom tent or throw a tablecloth over a table, undecorate, I would say, Don't insist on eye contact if you know that person has ASD. I Train students to look at me to say hello, but I was instructed by one of my friends with ASD, who said, You know what, your face is so confusing. If I want to listen to your words, I need to look away. I said, seriously, first of all, faces give a lot of I don't know input. Some of us read those as facial expressions, and others are like, Why are you moving your mouth and your nose and your eyes? And so if you can't read that on somebody's face, it's confusing. Plus, she said, Do you know those movies where like you you see the action but you hear the words several seconds later? She said, that's what it's like for me. My vision works very well. My hearing processing is delayed, and so I don't get that information until later. In any event, insisting on eye contact while you're telling a Bible story, I just do a comprehension check, or insisting that a person look at you, especially if they're in trouble, don't do that you have now created a huge problem. They might be listening to you better with their eyes down. So greetings, yes, and I often say, Look at my nose. That doesn't move much. It's pretty stable, but look at my nose to say hello. If it's helpful for you to listen to my words by looking down. You may do that, but you have to know the people in your life before you can make those statements. Again. That information through muscles and joints can sometimes actually be a great source of calming. So having a trampoline in that setting is a way to give some fast input to your proprioceptive system, and can sometimes be very calming for a person having lotion. And I always let that person pick and please do not put lotion, rub lotion on a teenager, right? We're talking about younger ones here, or maybe an elderly person who's really able to give permission for that, but, but really sometimes, again, what you're doing is you're giving some nice firm pressure on their arms, skin, whatever. And that can be really helpful. There's a brushing technique, again, that is sometimes recommended. If this person is having a brushing technique, you might as well learn how to do it, especially if they're with you for over two hours, because usually that's a therapy that's applied every two hours. So learn how to do it. If you're on an overnight retreat, you might as well bring it along, because that might provide an avenue of calm for that individual. Animal walks, again, bear walks, crab walks, getting some pressure on your muscles and joints can be really helpful. Providing, like a milk crate with a bunch of books in it, heavy loads, heavy backpacks, those lap animals that I had described, where you put rice on people's laps, those things can all be really helpful. And it looks like, yeah, carrying it around a sibling can be a way to provide that heavy load as well. So how can we, you know, give some of those things so people can stay calm? How would you know what to do? Well, you got to get to know the person. What works for that individual, what works for one is not going to work for the other. So you have to find out what is calming for that person. What helps regulate that system before I move to the to the next section, I just have to tell a story from my friend Sandra, because it has been so meaningful to me. She does process sensation a bit differently, and she knows people not because of the way they look. Interestingly enough, she knows people by their voice matched with the smell of their of who they are. So she would know me as Barb because of my voice and my smell together. And she was she written some things, and one of the things she wrote is, I know that many of you can't wait for the time that you go to heaven, because you can't wait to see Jesus, but I got to tell you, I can't wait to smell him. Wow. Talk about expanding our world of who God is. Talk about expanding our world. I just think that that is an amazing opportunity for us to imagine God differently. And I tell you, I can't wait to smell him. If God's preparing a feast for my eyes, why wouldn't God be preparing a feast for Sandra's nose? And altogether, this opportunity to meet Jesus has become a different thing. In my mind, Sandra grew my world and my understanding of who God is, just by the way, God had created her and her explaining that to me, what a gift that she's part of my life. I hope you have such gifts in yours. Victoria - So as you got to hear from Barb, she's offered a few different ideas. She's talked us through some ways to offer options for individuals. And so I wanted to talk a little bit about something that she was just leading into. She calls them break tickets, or helping a person stop before crossing the line. And I think of it like a turtle crossing the road and before they hit that white line where they might get hit by traffic, I want to stop that turtle while it's still in the safe zone. And I think that's what. Break tickets can be really helpful for is when that sensory system has had more than it can take, and we see the behavior starting to show that, and that sensory system is overloaded, and this individual is expressing that in distress, right? We can see that they're going to cross the line. They're moving into a not safe space, and so I want to stop that by offering what we call a break ticket. And I love this one. It even says I am feeling frustrated or mad or sad or scared or tired, right? So it's a reason for the I need a break. And what I think is great about these is you can just hand over the ticket, and it's expressing I need the break. Please, let me take this break. You have a pre designated plan that says this is what a break looks like. It might be five minutes to go out and get a drink of water or to go sit in a comfortable space, or maybe there's a person that they go get a hug from, or write something like that. You arrange what that break looks like and what that means for this individual, but you're allowing them a break, and it might be that they just hand you the break ticket. You don't even have to have a words interaction in order to say what's going to happen. Or maybe it's a break ticket that's just available, they can pick it up from a pre designated place in the room and take it with them. Or maybe it's your control, and you hand them the break ticket when you can see that they need a break but it's a great system to say there is some sensory differences here that we need to just allow to calm down before we move on. And I want to show you a few examples of some break spaces. So the largest picture here is actually in an airport where I have traveled recently, and they have this great sensory space with some things you can do on the wall, some mazes. They have a stool. They even have this relaxation room with a screen on it and this chair. It's kind of like a hammock that you can sit in, and it's got the sound of breeze and this kind of comforting Lighthouse scene that you can sit and watch as you just sit in this calm, sensory, like sensory reduced space, a place to kind of recollect yourself and take a break, something that my own family members use is time with cats. Time with animals can be a great way to just gain a little bit of comfort, reset your own system, get that tactile input, and even have just some calming sounds like a purring cat and the warmth of them on your lap to help you reset your system and breathe in and breathe out, and know that you can, you can do these other things, but you've just allowed yourself a break for for your system to reset. So animals are a great avenue for allowing a Break space as well. Maybe the break space is something that looks a little different in your cultural space or in your ministry setting. So what does it look like to provide the alternatives? Maybe, if your services are in an open air environment with a roof but no walls or doors, can they still participate from far enough away that the noise level is tolerable for this individual? Can you offer options other than touch. If handshaking or passing the peace is your tradition, right? Are there different options that they could engage in as well? Could you participate in the Lord's supper or communion, including foods that are there? Maybe not possible for this person, I just I want you to consider being open to creative ways to engaging in worship practices and exploring the heart of the matter, as well as the sensory needs of the person. So thinking about what the what does that look like as our sensory systems are sending us signals, and people with autism get different kinds of signals, and the processing looks different, and it can be more amplified or it can be muted in different ways. And so within your context, as you notice individuals who struggle to participate, could it be because their sensory system is forcing them to need a break? And how can you allow for that? So those are just some thoughts, and now I want to wrap up with the next few minutes here with another area of difference that Barb's going to share about perspective taking with individuals on the autism spectrum. Barb - I want to talk a little bit about perspective taking, as well as some of those social pieces in this last section. And I have to remind you that a social interaction can't take place alone. That always requires at least two people to have a social setting, right? So when you're thinking of ideas to try, sometimes we've overloaded the person with ASD and haven't put enough pressure on the other part of the social equation to implement something different or to learn something different. So actually, part of my training of you in the area of autism spectrum disorder is to establish that place of social understanding if you're aware of some of these social differences, well, that gives you a chance then to perhaps ask a question the right way or ignore something because now you understand understand why a person may have said what they did or done what they did. So again, we're going to look a little bit at both of those things. And so first, social and perspective taking as I combine them together, let's talk about that plan for the individual. You might be able to use books and videos talking about it, somebody else doing that. And so what? What TV show does this person watch or is it popular in in your country or in your state? You could maybe use that to point out some social errors that this person is making, but they point them out with the character in the in the event good role play, you could say, you know, this is how it happened, let's, let's do it a different way. Let's have a redo, right? So we can role play it a different way. You may need to play detective. You may need to look for those things and discover what. Why did they just do that? Does it always happen at 10 o'clock? I mean, what is? What are those things that we need to be mindful of? These social information stories are huge, whether those video, whether they're written out, whether it's a sequence of pictures providing advanced information about a setting, about an activity that is so important for some people, they can come into it with confidence then, because they've experienced it. Remember how I drew the picture of what was happening? Here is the boy. Here am I? You said, Hey, you must weigh 400 pounds. And so I drew that out again. What that does is it adds a visual to whatever conflict or situation there was, what could you draw out? And could that help people interpret what was happening, give information, provide the perspective. You know, I think when you came in and said, Your dress is ugly, that made Sue feel sad, and sometimes I'll also draw some faces on a sheet, and I'll say, Okay, well, if Sue's sad, what are you going to do to make her happy? Or, you know, put some emotion words. You know, she's sad right now, what would you like to try and put that pressure on that individual to come up with an idea to try so again, involving people in how are we going to fix this? Now, can sometimes be helpful. My colleague Tori, when we talk about the topic of dementia in a little bit, is going to talk more about wraparound teams. So I'm going to save that concept. She describes those so well, but understand while she's applying this in the context of dementia, these wraparound teams can be very helpful in a variety of settings. So a person might benefit from having some people trained to know this individual. Well, please remember that emotions may not match the face. I get this a lot where somebody will say, well, they're just laughing. They're just giggling. I'm like, they're laughing and giggling because they're showing you that they don't have control of their emotions right now, might come out as anger, might come out as giggling. There's a whole bunch of choices, but don't expect emotions to always match the face as you're interacting with someone. But we also need to think about the others. What might they need do the peers need a plan. Are there information? A lesson? You need to teach? How can they best be prepared to receive the gifts that this person brings to the community? Do you need to describe they left the room screaming because that noise was unexpected, and God created each one of our ears differently. That noise was too loud for our friend Justin. What information do you need to give on the fly or planned into your setting? Because you know there are going to be these kinds of questions that come same for the leaders. What kind of information? Hopefully this session has been helpful to you. Hopefully you'll you'll leave saying, Oh my goodness. Now not only do I understand those differences, but I understand some ideas I can use to come alongside that individual. But again, how can we give important information to leaders so that they also have that information Victoria - all right. So you've heard a few different clips from Barb there that we put together, because there's some great insights in there. And now I just want to share with you a few other organizations who continue to talk about and study this area of the intersection of faith and autism. So I really want to introduce you to the Center for Autism and theology. They are out of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and so they have this whole center designed and actively doing research with people with autism into their faith practices and experiences. And one of the books that I've just recently read from that is called Autism and the church by Grant MacAskill, and so I highly encourage you to just have a look at their website and to see the things that people with autism are saying and doing in regards to the theology of autism and faith, and how it's so important to again, take note of the gifts that people with autism bring to our communities, but also some of the ramifications for the way that we do our worship services and have our ministry expectations in terms of what are the differences that these people experience, and how we can be better equipped to be the full body of Christ together if we have greater understanding of these things. So another one is an organization called key ministry. They have autism resources for ministry leaders and families, and they also have done some great work with someone who is known as the autism pastor. He was diagnosed with autism as an adult long into his ministry career, and his name is Dr Lamar Hardwick, so they have paired up several times and do some things together, but lots of great resources there, and I've put the link in the course information for you, because it's really worth exploring if this area of autism is impacting your community. Learn some from people with autism. Learn some from people who've been thinking about this for quite a while and are still active in researching it and in just doing some great stuff. So find those resources in the course. Links super encourage you to hear that. Okay, now I want to end this time with hearing from someone who has a great story of an example of here's your own personalized plan. This boy lives with autism, and Barb knew him well and set up a personalized plan. So hear this story and be encouraged, and then I'll catch up with you next time. Barb - So I wanted to just close this section with actual plan for an actual person. David was transitioning from fifth grade into youth group, and what they were noticing David, who had been well included through universal design features in this church, all of a sudden the boys in that grade were just moving away from him. He didn't have that social space figured out so he'd get too close. The things David thought were funny they didn't think we're funny at all. The leaders in youth group were not at all pleased that David was transitioning to youth group, and so they too were nervous and weren't thinking that youth group would be a great setting. So again, they gathered people who knew David Well, parents David as part of that, David happens to be brilliant. David has phenomenal ability to memorize. He is has learned so many positive social skills, so is able to be taught social pieces along the way. And so the plan at church involves several things. First of all, remember two sides. Let's start with that others side. They decided to use all belong to do some training with the leadership and to do some training with the peers to talk about some of those differences that they might see with David, they decided to do some training on social distance, and they also decided to use his gifts in service by being the one who recited passages in front of the congregation, as well as within the Sunday school and youth group area, the leaders, the fifth grade leader and the sixth grade and the overseer of youth group met together, and actually that youth group leader spent a little time in the fifth grade to see how well David could do in that setting, and then built that relationship before he transitioned. So the plan didn't last very long. It lasted for a year. They checked in the transition had happened. Well, David was being embraced by his peers. He also wasn't getting close enough to embrace them, which was really good for those guys, right? But David had learned they had discovered his many gifts in reading, in memorize Scripture. And again, it was going well. So they had basically a one year plan if they would need to put it in place again later. They could do that so many differences. Ben, who I talked about as an example in that responsive design plan, his plan lasted for many years. You know, he had other pieces that were part of his life, different from David. So again, you meet one person with autism, you met exactly one person with autism. So it's personalized plans for a reason, and David didn't need a plan in the Sunday school years, they had a lot of features that worked well for him, but this was a junction when he did.
கடைசியாக மாற்றப்பட்டது: செவ்வாய், 28 ஏப்ரல் 2026, 10:38 AM