I have actually been in a similar situation. Except in this one the family was looking for help during the service so they could all worship and church wasn't work like everyother activity they attended.

At the time I had worked for about 6 years as an aide for children with special education needs. Sometimes this included a child with Autism. One thing that this set of parents did was ask for help and then provide as much guidance as needed to see success in this partnership.

This child was super sentive to sensory stimulation. If the lights hummed too loudly or the children in class were too loud, he would crash. However, thanks to his parents cooperation we knew his signals and were able to remove him from the situation before he got to the place where the child in this story you mentioned was.

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Evon Taylor
Okinawa Covenant Church, PCA
Okinawa, Japan