GOOD IDEA BUT...

 

When our oldest daughter was visiting us for a weekend, she came up with a great idea for our boys to help them worship at church.  

Since our boys read a limited amount of words, they are most likely not going to be able to follow along with the lyrics that are shown on the screen in the front of the sanctuary.  

Singing/music is not a real love for Ben so this is probably not something that frustrates him.  However, Jonah loves to sing and, in particular, loves to worship.  

When we are singing a worship song that is familiar to Jonah, he can sing because he remembers the words, not because he is getting any assistance from the lyrics up on the screen.  Abigail suggested we come up with a way to help him be able to "read" the lyrics so that he can sing all of the worship songs and not be limited.  

GREAT IDEA!  

My mind immediately thought of picture cues so I set out and prepared a few songs to see if it would work.  

Jonah very excitedly watched as I worked at the computer cutting and pasting clip art.  Then he excitedly sang along with a YouTube video using the picture cues so he could sing the entire song.  I was so thrilled!  

My mind was also jumping ahead thinking of how these picture cue worship songs could help other non-readers be able to worship better.  

So the next Sunday, again very excitedly, Jonah and I packed the binder with the 3 worship songs and their picture cues.  We got to church and parked.  And then...

Jonah took his usual 10 minutes to get out the back of the truck and walk to the church doors.  When he entered the church lobby, he realized the congregation was already singing the first song.  This makes him mad every week when we are late (ironically he is usually the reason we are late!)  His frustration continued as we walked into the sanctuary and as I got out the binder so we could start with the 2nd worship song.  Because he was angry about being late, he refused to sing and refused to use the binder.  And because of that frustration/anger on that one Sunday, he wants nothing to do with the picture cue worship songs.

Good idea but I seemed to have lost my window of opportunity for it to help him, at least at this point.

Down syndrome to me has a very strong component of stubbornness which this is a perfect example of.

I've included a sample of one of the worship songs in case anyone is interested or feels this idea might be useful for their kiddo.

I'll try again in a few weeks when maybe the memory of that failure on that one Sunday is gone from Jonah's very active and interesting little mind.

Here is a sample of my "good idea but..."