Interesting ADHD-related tidbits for church leaders

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I'm not sure why, but ADHD-related news has been catching my eye lately. Here are just a few of those tidbits:
  • Kids with ADHD may find it easier to focus on screens (i.e. video games, movies, and other media) than other stimuli. [1]
  • Some ADHD drugs, such as Adderall, have been in short supply this spring. They are harder to find in some areas, leading patients to shop around at multiple pharmacies or miss doses. [2]
  • Being diagnosed with ADHD as a child could be correlated to abusing drugs such as alcohol and marijuana as an adult. [3] There is a possibility that sexual addictions could be higher as well [citation, article]. [and, for good measure, one more source]
  • While the present diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorders doesn't allow a child to be formally diagnosed with ADHD as well, approximately half of children with ASDs exhibit characteristics of ADHD. [4]
So what are the implications of this for you as a ministry leader? Here are a few that came to mind for me:
  • You might want to involve screens in your ministry occasionally, through movie clips, YouTube, or powerpoint. (And, of course, make sure any media you use is age-appropriate and pre-approved by anyone who needs to give an okay. I know our church has policies related to that.)
  • Those with ADHD in your church may be dealing with extra stress of finding medications. They may need your support: emotional (such as listening), practical (such as babysitting while they hunt for meds or making phone calls to help them find a place carrying the pills they need), or financial (to cover the cost difference between generics and brand name versions in places where the generics are unavailable). Also, some individuals who are usually treated with these drugs might be unmedicated or undermedicated. 
  • We have a timely opportunity now to share the Gospel with these kids, which may make them less likely to turn to addictive behaviors as they grow up.
  • As we aim to welcome all families and individuals, it is wise to realize that many special needs co-exist with others. My friend at Key Ministry, Dr. Stephen Grcevich, posted about this last week.
What other implications come to mind for ministry settings?
 
(If you want more information about ADHD, this page from the National Institute of Mental Health is a good place to start.)

Cuddling with a half-eaten Pop Tart

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We have been sick nearly non-stop since October or November. And while I think we're finally entering healthy land, Robs is struggling today. I *think* it's just allergies, but I'm not positive. Especially after he passed out on the floor this morning.


Yes, that is a Pop Tart. I know they're not the healthiest things, but it was a special treat. Plus Pop Tarts are his love language. If your kid's love language was quality time, I wouldn't tell you to cut him off from that. So there's that.


Please pray that the kids would be healthy as the grandparents arrive on Thursday so we can go to our church's marriage retreat. We had to go a day later than planned last year due to a little guy with a high fever, and while I don't think we'll postpone it this year (since Momma Bear is more comfortable with leaving a two-year-old with a runny nose than I was a one-year-old with a fever), it would help me relax to know that he's feeling fine and having a blast without us!

And now it's time to get off the computer and transfer a little sleeping man to his bed. 

(Why, yes, I did just take pictures, upload them, and write this post with him asleep on the floor.)

"But what if I think that most kids with __________ are making it up?"

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I'm not sure if these conversations are happening across the country, but most conversations about ADHD around here include one of the following statements:
Everybody has that nowadays.

Isn't that just a checklist thing? I mean, it's not a real diagnosis, right?

That's just an excuse for bad behaviors.

That's so overdiagnosed. When I was growing up, we didn't label kids like that, and we did just fine.
Before I dive into a couple of interesting research notes about individuals with ADHD in a post tomorrow, let me address the statements above, not as a special needs ministry coordinator but as a trained special educator. (And please keep in mind that these are CERTAINLY not limited to ADHD. In my city and at my church, I've noticed that people only make such comments with boldness about ADHD. When they make comments like this about about other special needs, they usually used more hushed tones...or they just think the comment instead of saying it.)

Is ADHD prevalent nowadays? Yes. It possible that some ADHD diagnoses aren't legit? Yes. Is it a real disorder? Yes. Can you or I conclusively pass judgment on whether or not a specific individual has a legit diagnosis? Nope.

Now let me put my special needs ministry coordinator hat back on:
Based on all that, would it be wise or profitable for you or I to try to pass judgment on whether or not an individual has a legit diagnosis? No. If you want to debate the issue from a diagnostic or theoretical perspective, particularly if you work in a field related to special education, go for it. Just don't bring that into your ministry.

Whenever you are tempted to pass judgment on the legitimacy of someone's diagnosis, stop. Remember that God is all-knowing and you are not. He knows the ins and outs of each person's life; you only know the tiny sliver of interaction that you have each week or month with that individual.

I don't see Christ analyzing whether or not the woman who was hemorrhaging had sought adequate care first or bled enough to warrant healing. No, instead He noticed her desperate touch on His robe and called her daughter. I don't hear Jesus suggesting that we place bouncers at the door of a Luke 14 banquet to ensure that folks are crippled enough, lame enough, or blind enough. No, He says, "But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." I don't read about Christ ignoring the pain of His friends when Lazarus died, even though He knows that the death won't stick because healing will be provided. No, He cares enough and feels enough to weep.

The comments I shared at the beginning remind me of comments I often hear about people who are homeless or poor. Well, we shouldn't help them because they could be making a lot of money panhandling. They could be abusing my kindness. They might even {gasp!} buy alcohol with my money. And so those attitudes provide an excuse not to help others, not to care about them. Could those statements be true? Sure. But can you know with certainly whether or not they are? No.

Why are we so afraid of helping someone who might not be "worthy" (according to our own assumptions, that is)? Could it be that we have somehow deluded ourselves into thinking that we have made ourselves worthy in some way instead of acknowledging that not one of us is deserving of grace? God is the only one who knows without a doubt if a person was rightly diagnosed with a disorder or if a person really needs food. And He is the only one who can take a wretched sinner like me and make her worthy of anything but hell.

What if we became less concerned about trying to be God - which is what we're doing when we try to decide who is and isn't worthy - and became more concerned about loving and serving others?

An opportunity or an inconvenience?

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This was originally published in the Inquest Ministries, Inc. newsletter and on their blog. It was written for an audience primarily of youth ministry leaders, many of whom are not currently involved in special needs ministry.

Do you have teens with special needs in your ministry?

Odds are yes, given that 6.6 million children and youth have disabilities, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education. Of those, 2.6 million have learning disabilities. More than 800,000 have autism or intellectual disabilities (previously referred to as “mental retardation”).[1] Seven percent of children ages 3-17 have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD (including 11% of boys and 4% of girls).[2] And one in 110 eight-year-olds has an autism spectrum disorder (1 in 70 for boys, 1 in 315 for girls).[3]

Those certainly don’t include all the possible special needs a student could have, but it’s a start. This is the reality in which we do ministry. (And, if your ministry doesn’t include any students with special needs, then please let these statistics open your eyes to the mission field that exists within your community!)

So what can you do? Is this an opportunity or an inconvenience?

Well, let’s consider the benefits you and your ministry can gain from welcoming students with special needs. You’ll get to…

1) Partner with parents more effectively. In student ministry, we ought to be partnering with every parent, but it shifts from “ought to be partnering” to “must partner” with the parents of students with special needs. If a student has a disability, it is harder for parents to drop off the child and then bolt. They’ll probably want to talk to you. And that’s a very good thing!

2) Practice confidentiality. Most students don’t want to be different from everyone else, or if they do, they want to define the difference. A streak of color in their hair? Good different. A seat in special education? Not the sort of different they usually want shared with their friends.

3) Learn humility. I have my master’s degree in special education, but that doesn’t give me the advantage in special needs ministry that you might expect. I learn from each of our students with special needs and their families, because they can teach me far more about their disabilities and challenges than any textbook or website ever could. Realizing you don’t know it all and having to learn from others? That’s an opportunity to develop humility.

4) Adjust your teaching to benefit all students. Common modifications for students with special needs include limiting distractions, adding multi-sensory elements (visuals, audio, movement, touch), and breaking content into chunks and reviewing after each one. Every time I’ve made accommodations for students with disabilities, they have also helped non-disabled students. Seriously, what middle school boy wouldn’t benefit from fewer distractions?

5) Include all parts of the body of Christ. Ministering to and with students with disabilities shows that, in the words of 1 Corinthians 12:24-25, “God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.” It’s our sin that bestows honor on some while rejecting others; it’s God who can bring unity where we – both in the church and outside of it – have created division.

And the number one benefit? Welcoming individuals with disabilities into our student ministries and every other aspect of the church is about the Gospel. When we share the Gospel with all students, including those with disabilities, it changes us and it changes them. It can change a generation.

Is it always easy to include students with special needs in your ministry? No. Is it an unequivocal display of the works of God (John 9:3; Psalm 78:7) and the value of all life? Yes.

It’s an opportunity, not an inconvenience.

No partiality {James 2:1-13}

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James 2:1-13 {ESV}

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.