Teaching children with disabilities

I hope "disabilities" isn't offensive...I know this can be a sensitive subject and I have so much respect for parents who have the challenge and blessing of rearing children who need more help than others. I've seen first hand how physically and emotionally demanding working with these sweet children can be. I'm truly amazed at the hearts and dedication of the parents.
I'm teaching the children at our church right now and we have a few autistic children. It's challenging to meet their needs as well as the other children in their classes, but I've been pleased with the insight and direction offered to us by our church leaders.  This is a link to information and aid in teaching people/children with various disabilities...

We have a challenging 5 year old class with one autistic boy.  I taught them a few Sundays ago and thought, "What can we do to make this work for ALL of the children?"   The next day my sister sent me the above link and I poured through it for ideas on how to make this class successful. I subbed again the following week and followed the advice to make the lesson SHORT, and have a class schedule that the children could depend on, such as Lesson, Snack, Activity, Prayer. I had to verbally repeat our schedule many times, but the difference from the week before was night and day.  The autistic boy sat in his seat for the entire lesson, and we really had an honest to goodness nice lesson. He is such a sweetheart and I was so happy for him and for the rest of the kids.
I have to say that the advice on the above link is worth trying out. I know that each child and each situation is different and there needs to be flexibility, but it's a great starting point. I'm thankful that there is so much help available now to enable us to make primary meaningful for all of the children.

It also helps to keep in mind that none of us are wired perfectly, and the best thing we can do is be compassionate and supportive of one another on our journeys.