Making VBS work for everyone

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The funny thing about the title is that all my church buddies will click on it to see what’s wrong. lol  Vacation Bible School or VBS starts this morning at church.  I am teaching 2nd grade again (because I am a glutton for punishment since that is the biggest class) hehehe.  This will Logan’s last year participating as a student. Next year, he gets to volunteer to help out like all the other youth in the youth group.

VBS can be a nightmare for children with autism or with sensory disorder.  This could have been true with Logan IF modifications weren’t made in the early years.  I happen to attend a fantastic church that really goes out of their way to make him be successful.  I’m just gonna share a few things that we have done in the past to make it work for Logan. The picture is from 2003 and he looked so sad.  The fact of the matter was that he wouldn’t look at the camera so this is the only shot that they could get.

First, I put him in the class that he is in developmentally not necessarily the age appropriate one. Last year , this meant that he was in the 3rd and 4th grade class not the 5th and 6th grade one.  He was familiar with the teacher as she was his Sunday School teacher.  He had friends in there that he was comfortable with and the class was smaller and less rambunctious.  This was his 3rd year in that class but it was were he was in his developmental age.  If he had been 2nd grade developmentally then that is the class he would have been in.  You get the picture here.  Put the child were he is set up to be successful.  That is first and foremost. 

Second, there are breaks built into the schedule so he doesn’t have to sit and pay attention for a long period of time. This is good for all the kids. The first couple of years, Logan needed a fidget toy to hold during storytime so he did.  Make sure that you are meeting their sensory needs as well.  Before we would leave in the morning, we would brush him and get him calmed down to start the day.  Made all the difference in the world to him.

Also, we pack ear plugs so when they go to worship and it’s loud, he’s got them.  Let’s face it.  It gets loud at VBS.  If he wouldn’t wear ear plugs then I would take him out and let him sit in the hallway.  A lot of times, one of the older youths could do this and stay with him so I could stay and participate as well.

Finally, and this was probably the most important factor in making VBS successful for Logan was getting the teachers to understand that sometimes he is not going to participate.  The fact is he may be overloaded and just not be able to do it or want to for that matter. The majority of the time , he does join in after appraising the situation for himself,  Nowadays, his friends are able to coax him into joining too.  If he has done most of the activities then it’s ok to let him sit one out.  Don’t force him to do it.  It will make him and you miserable.  Some battles are not meant to be fought.

That’s what we have done to make VBS successful for our child with autism.  Some years were better than others.  Most of the early ones were painful to get through as he fell further and further behind his same age peers. We trudged through it and kept at it.   As we close out his VBS years, I am glad that we did although it wouldn’t have been possible without an awesome church.

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Welcome to Autismland!

Based on my own personal and sometimes difficult experiences parenting an autistic child, my hope is to educate other autism families on how to navigate their Autismland from pre diagnosis to adulthood.

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