The church is a place for believers who share the same faith to gather.

It is an important virtue to provide a place of welcome and support for autism.

Try to find out how the multiple ways you can support autistic persons at your church.

You can support autistic persons at your church by simply learning about autism.

It is essential to take the time to learn about autism.

After learning about autism, you would be better able to support autistic persons in your church.

Autistic people could suffer from sensory issues.

One of the ways to support autistic persons at your church is to make accommodations for the sensory needs of autistic people.

You could do this with sensory objects to help with sensory issues.

On the spectrum of autism, struggling with communication is a common trait of autistic people.

However, autistic individuals typically respond well to the use of visual support.

You can offer your support to autistic people by providing visual support to the church.

You can find out ways to support autistic persons at your church below:

Learn About Autism 

An essential part of offering support is being able to understand what you are supporting.

Autism is a spectrum of traits an individual displays.

One good place to begin providing support for autistic individuals at your church is by taking time to learn about autism.

There are common misconceptions and stereotypes about autistic people that you might have been exposed to.

This could cause you to make false assumptions about autistic people.

An excellent way to learn about autism is by joining an autism community.

In an autism community, it is more likely you interact with many autistic people and other people familiar with supporting autistic people.

You would likely gain personal experience that you could also use to support autistic persons at your church.

You could also learn about autism by reading up about autism.

There are many materials about autism that you could apply to learn about autism.

When you know about autism, the number of ways you can support autistic individuals at your church will increase.

Consider Their Sensory Needs 

Autistic individuals usually have unique sensory responses to other sensory stimuli.

This means that autistic people are affected differently by sound, sight, smell, taste, and touch than other people.

Sometimes, this causes autistic people to struggle with their lives.

For instance, an autistic person is likely to have better hearing capabilities.

This means that loud sounds could hurt autistic people.

A similar thing could be said about bright lights for autistic people, as they are likely to have stronger visuals.

One of the ways to support autistic persons at your church is to cater to their unique sensory needs.

For instance, you could provide the option of headphones and shades for autistic people with sensitivities to sound and light, respectively.

Autistic people also benefit from the use of specific sensory objects.

Sometimes meltdowns for autistic people are caused by overstimulation or under-stimulation of the sensory needs of autistic people.

You could also find a way to provide a sensory environment where autistic people could retreat and release stress.

Although accommodating the sensory needs of autistic people might be difficult, catering to the sensory needs of autistic people will help them feel welcomed at your church.

Engage Them

One of the best ways to show autistic persons at your church support is to engage them.

Since autism is a spectrum of a range of traits, you could consider getting to know the autistic persons you want to support rather than making broad assumptions.

You could offer more practical support after learning more about autistic individuals.

Consider having conversations and interactions with the autistic persons at your church.

Try to also learn about the interests and hobbies of the people you want to support.

There might be autistic children in your church. In this case, try to meet up with the families of the child with autism.

You will likely gain context on how you could support autistic persons at your church.

It is essential to understand that some autistic individuals might struggle to have social interactions.

This might make it difficult to understand.

However, you would still gain valuable insight into how to support autistic persons.

Provide Visual Support 

Communication can be challenging for many autistic individuals.

For the most part, this includes both verbal and non-verbal communication.

However, autistic people seem to communicate better through visual support.

One of the ways to support autistic persons at your church is to provide visual support for autistic individuals.

Visual support helps autistic people not only to understand people but also to communicate with people.

You could use visual support like pictures and drawing to communicate with autistic people.

A very vital support tool is a visual schedule.

It helps to demonstrate the schedule of any given period.

You could provide a visual schedule in the church to make life easier for some people with autism.

You could also use signs and directions to guide people to the church.

Some autistic people might be uncomfortable with asking for directions from strangers.

Any visual support provided will also be helpful to all members of the church.

Give Them Love and Encouragement 

Some autistic people struggle to find acceptance in their lives.

The church is a place for believers to share their faith and love one another.

It is supposed to be a great place for autistic people to be able to find support and a sense of community. '

Unfortunately, some autistic people do not feel welcomed at churches.

Some families could struggle to control their autistic's children's behavior.

It is also possible that an autistic person could have a meltdown in church.

It is vital at this point to show kindness and empathy to the family with an autistic child or any autistic person.

You could expressly reassure the autistic persons of your love in accordance with faith.

This will likely show support for the autistic community in the church.

A significant obstacle autistic people often face is acceptance.

Some autistic people struggle with stigma in the community.

You can support autistic persons at your church by offering them love and encouragement.

Conclusion

Autistic persons often need support in one way or another way.

The church is an excellent place to receive support for autism.

The ways you could support autistic persons at your church include learning about autism, providing for their sensory needs, engaging them, using visual support, and offering love and encouragement. 

Resources 

https://includedbygrace.wordpress.com/2019/02/18/5-ways-to-support-autistic-children-in-church/

https://autismfaithnetwork.com/5-steps-to-help-autistic-adults-feel-welcome-in-your-church/

https://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/how-your-church-can-support-parents-of-kids-with-autism/

https://anabaptistworld.org/10-ways-to-make-your-church-autism-friendly/

https://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/5-ways-we-can-encourage-those-with-autism-in-our-churches/