Yeah... I wasn't trained for this...

Over the past 2 months or so, a new family has been attending my church. They have a 13 year old girl who has started coming to youth group, which is usually a great thing. It didn't take long to figure out that there was something different about this girl.

The first Wednesday night program that she attended was interesting to say the least. She first raised her hand in the middle of the lesson to ask who in the group were siblings. After we established who the brothers and sisters were, I continued with the lesson. A few minutes later, her hand went up again. She then pulled a cd out from her purse and asked if she could "share" it with everyone. I asked exactly how she intended to share it, seeing as how there is no cd player in our area.

The whole time, you could just tell that she wasn't aware of anything going on around her. She was in her own little world, and would come back into ours every few minutes to bring everything to a screeching halt to answer her random questions. As she keeps coming to church, it is increasingly becoming the norm.

She doesn't ask as many questions now, but she desperately tries to get the attention of other members of the youth group all during the lessons. Ways of doing this include slapping her own face, choking herself with her scarf, breaking out into random laughter, and a few other ways as well. Another issue we face is that when there is food around, she absolutely gorges herself. At our superbowl party, she had 3 plates of food and an entire box of Kroger cookies by herself. Her parents had to come pick her up early because she ate herself sick. I didn't see all of that, or I would have stopped her.

I spoke with the pastor and his wife about the situation. There immediate reply was "Oh, yeah- that girl has some major issues..." Turns out that she may be suffering from turrets, aspergers, schizophrenia, or some combination of them.

Needless to say, here is what I know for sure. She doesn't seem to be even remotely aware that there is a lesson going on. I know for a fact that she doesn't listen to a word I say. I am basically baby-sitting her for an hour on Wednesday and Sunday nights. I also know that her interruptions absolutely bring any teaching or spiritual moment we may be having to a halt. Her parents aren't big fans of having conversations about their daughter, so they haven't been much help. I do know that she isn't being abused in any way.

So my question is this... how do I handle this situation? I have never cut her off or dismissed any of her random questions, but they are seriously impeding any learning or worship that may occur with the rest of the group. Is it fair to the rest of the group that they cannot possibly keep a train of thought for more than a couple of minutes because she distracts us some way? I want this girl to feel included, but at what price?

Any advice or insight would be awesome