They like Gospel music

I was going through some of the materials from the IASSID conference I attended in Cape Town South Africa and ran across notes from a session entitled, "Autism in Africa" by Dr. F. Njenga, a Kikuyu elder and psychiatrist. He was interesting and funny. However, one comment he made I thought was fun and stuck with me. In his research on autism he noted that, as a characteristic of people with autism, that they like "listening to Gospel music." Really! It was presented as a characteristic of the people with autism that he studied in his research.

Now I haven't the foggiest idea why the people he studied had this characteristic. Perhaps it was the only music they had access to, perhaps the only recorded music, or maybe there was something about the music that they particularly liked. Whatever it was, how cool that there is that input being made into the lives of these persons. I am reminded of the Isaiah 55:11 passage which says,

11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
(Today's New International Version)

As I say, I don't know why this is a characteristic, however, the fact that it is, is encouraging.

It has long been my desire that a characteristic of persons with intellectual disabilities would be that they are church attenders. That is my desire for a variety of reasons; for the benefit they would enjoy from attending church, for the benefit the church would enjoy by having such individuals in their midst.

McNair