I have been mulling over how best to address this question regarding how to
deal with mentally challenged boys. As a parent of and commander to a 9
year old Buckaroo who is developmentally delayed, I have a unique
perspective on this subject.
My husband has been the Sr. Commander of our outpost for 4 years and I just
recently joined the Ranger ranks due to the needs of our son. I have worked
with the children of our church on Sunday mornings for 10 years, so it was
an easy transition for me. Not everyone is equipped to meet the needs of
the special child that may be in their program. Our son is very high
functioning but he still requires a lot of patience and a willingness to
repeat things several times.
We have had a boy in our outpost who is unable to walk without
legbraces/crutches and is often in a wheelchair. He has gone on several
camping trips including one POW WOW. My husband and the other commanders,
as well as the boys, made whatever accomodations were necessary for this
boy. In his heart, he is just like every other boy, and he had the most
wonderful time at each of these events.
I so much appreciated the comments from Rick Barnhouse and how his outpost
is making efforts to accomodate boys with special needs. What an outreach
to that "home" that sends the boys your way! And Mike Burke's comments
that "The Special needs Child Needs Christ" touched my heart. Who would
Jesus be drawn to if He were to walk into an outpost meeting? Would it be
that ADD child that some feel isn't really trying? Somewhere inside that
little guys ill functioning brain, he's doing the very best he can and
Christ would show him compassion and understanding.
What I have found as the parent of a disabled boy is that I have had to
educate myself and ALSO those who work with my son as to what works best for
him. Unfortunately, not every parent of a special needs child does this and
it often makes things more difficult for the child. I concur with Mike
Burke that as commanders, please do all that you can to find out more about
the boy who has special needs. His parents will be appreciative of your
interest and concern for their son.
We have been very blessed by the people in our outpost. They are very
accepting of our son. When Kent was promoted to Buckaroos, his Straight
Arrow commander could barely speak because he was so overcome with emotion.
He later shared with me how Kent had impacted his life and the lives of the
boys in his outpost. Memorization is very difficult for our son but he had
worked and worked at those verses.
Just last week he was struggling with saying the Ranger Code to the other
Buckaroo Commander. We had printed out the main points in BLUE to help him
to remember they these were the blue points on the RR emblem. He had
memorized them but he can become very easily frustrated and was ready to
quit when a few of the other boys in Buckaroos encouraged him on. I
couldn't believe it as I watched some of the boys who in the past have been
pretty challenging and often times very self-centered, and were now helping
Kent with his advancement. He was so pleased with himself when he finished.
I was able to share with him later that his prayers had been answered. We
had asked God to help him to do his best at Rangers and he had done his best
that evening.
I can't really speak to the issues of GMA and mentally/physically challenged
boys because I've not yet been involved in that area of acheivement, due to
the age of our boys. I think it would fair for appropriate modifications to
be made based upon the boys disability and perhaps the leaders and parents
could enlist the help of a special educator in determining those
modifications.
I'm sad to say that the Church is not where it should be in ministering to
people who are disabled and I'm sure it breaks God's heart. It will be my
prayer that Royal Rangers will be an area of ministry that will perhaps be
at the forefront of accepting these special boys and doing all that can be
done to Reach, Teach and Keep them for Christ.
Laurie Milton
Buckaroo Commander
Outpost 163, Roseville, CA
> I just have no boys like that. We had one who was deaf and we included
>him but he is sickly and hardly ever came so ..... We have one boy who I
>guess really is ADD ( a diagnosis I really have a hard time with for 90%
>of the time ) but he can learn if he applies himself but he doesn't.
>Sometimes if you are told you are damaged you act that way. Sometimes
>they hide behind their drugs oops I mean medication.
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