Mission 2013 #16. Disability in the USA

 

Ed Stetzer from the Southern Baptist tribe is a guy who does his best to find out what research data has to say about the state of the nation and the various churches and church leaders who minister here.  He recently blogged about disability and what the churches were doing, if anything, about ministry to those impacted by it. Some of the data he harvested is listed below. I took it from a post on the sweetenlifeblog by Brenda Drexler. 

If we are going to minister to families, we need to at least recognize what they are dealing with on a daily basis. Biblically speaking, ignorance is bliss but it is no a good preparation for ministry.

• 7% of children ages 3 - 17 have ADHD. 11% of boys, 4% of girls
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• 8% of children ages 3 - 17 have a learning disability. 10% boys, 6% girls
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• 10% of children have an anxiety disorder
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• 13% of children ages 13 - 17 have a developmental disability (ranging from mild disabilities such as speech and language impairments to serious developmental disabilities, such as intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, and autism).
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• 41% of children with a developmental disability have multiple disabilities
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• 17% of Americans will experience a communication disorder at some point in their life, which includes sensing, interpreting and responding (i.e. auditory processing disorder).
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• 1 in 88 children have an autism spectrum disorder. 1/54 boys, 1/252 girls.
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• 1.6 % of children will receive an ASD (autism spectrum disorder) diagnosis at some point in their lives. 2.6% boys.
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• 37.5% of individuals who receive an ASD diagnosis will go on to lose that diagnosis.
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• 41% of people with an autism spectrum disorder have an intellectual disability (which means that 59% do not necessarily have an intellectual disability).
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• 19% of Americans are classified as a person with a disability, which equals the population of the states of FL and CA combined. Both the number and percentage of Americans with a disability has risen in recent years. 
• (The state of Ohio lists 20.9% of the kids between birth and 17 have a disability. This means that 1/5 of your congregation is impacted by disability. )
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• We at Sweeten Life can help you figure out the best way to minister to these families.