Hello, my name’s Mark Arnold and I’m the Additional Needs Ministry Director at Urban Saints.
In this short video we are going to be exploring a bit more about autism, particularly thinking about autistic children, young people and young adults.
So, what is autism?
Autism is a neurodivergence. Now that might be a new word for you. What it means is that autistic children, young people and indeed adults experience and journey through the world in a different way; communicate with and from the world in a different way and understand the world in a different way too. It’s a difference rather than being a disability.
[Slide 1]
What autism isn’t is a behavioural issue. Often negative labels such as ‘challenging’ or ‘behavioural issues’ or ‘uncooperative’ are commonly used to describe autistic children. And sometimes they can be identified as ‘naughty’, or their families have ‘poor parenting skills’.
These narratives are wrong and come from a lack of knowledge about autism, about those differences that I just mentioned.
So how common is autism? Well, there are lots of figures out there, but the Department of Health in Ireland did a study a couple of years ago that suggested that as many as one in 22 (1:22) children and young people could be autistic.
Now that’s a figure that’s a big jump up from what we’ve seen before so does that mean autism is on the increase. Well, no it just means that we’re getting better at understanding it, diagnosing it and being able to support autistic children and young people.
Autistic children, young people and indeed adults generally prefer an identity-first language, so to be referred to as an ‘autistic person’ rather than a ‘person with autism’. But of course, we should check with each individual and see what they prefer and make sure that we are using the language that they have identified with for themselves.
Sometimes we hear things like talk about the ‘medical model’ and the ‘social model’. [slide 2] So the medical model when related to autism is suggesting that it’s something to be cured, that by treating it as a medical condition rather than a neurodiversity. It encourages autistic people as needing to be healed or made ‘non-autistic’ so that they’re like everyone else. Whereas the social model, when applied to autism, suggests that autistic people face all kinds of barriers: practical physical, people barriers, all kinds of challenges in a world that is only set up for non-autistic people. And rather than recognising that there are multiple and diverse types of people in the world and all should be treated equally, often the world will only accept one kind of person and that can be hard for autistic people generally.
There are lots of autism myths out there: you may have come across them yourselves. Some people suggest that autism is a result of a vaccination. Or that autism is only a boy thing. Many others besides. Sometimes people suggest that we’re all on the spectrum somewhere or a ‘little bit autistic’. All of these are wrong, and they and many other myths are really needing to be dispelled in this day and age.
[slide 3 – see ** below also] To help churches to understand how to include and support autistic children and young people in church I’ve created – along with Grove Youth – a booklet that’s very easy to read and understand, very accessible, that takes you through the journey of understanding a bit more about autism; a bit more about the barriers that autistic children, young people and indeed adults can experience and how to overcome some of those barriers. And also, some study material about how to make church a more inclusive, accessible and loving place for everyone. A place where everyone belongs.
I hope this short video has been helpful. My contact details are on the screen (marnold@urbansaints.org). If I can be of any further help, please get in touch. I’d love to hear from you.
** ‘How to Include Autistic Children and Young people in the Church’ by Mark Arnold. Published by Grove Books www.grovebooks.co.uk £3.95.