Few things have given Willie and Ivie Torres more satisfaction than watching their son, Michael, participate in services at their church.

The autistic 12-year-old claps his hands along with other members of the congregation of the Three Rivers Assembly of God in Penn Hills and joins in with readings and song, all from the front row. He also participates in Sunday school.

But not too many years ago, while the Torreses were in front of the congregation as worship leaders, Michael was in the back of the church with a kindly church member whose duty it was to keep the boy from disrupting the service.

He was receiving specialized services provided by the Penn Hills School District during school hours, but it was the other times, when the family wanted to go to church or to a restaurant, that they needed help.

They began their search for guidance for themselves and their son, who still lacked the social and communications skills many autistic children do.

They thought a special program through the Wesley Institute was the answer. The program provided a counselor who first worked with Michael at home then, about a year ago, started attending worship services with him to teach appropriate behavior.

Mr. Torres said there's been amazing progress, and he credits the Wesley program for it.

"There's somebody there guiding him every step of the way," he said.

Following this progress and helping any way he could was the church pastor, the Rev. Bill Logsdon. He was pleased that young Michael could make such progress and become part of the services as other children did.

But there are a number of children in the congregation with developmental problems, the Rev. Logsdon said, and all of them need help.

He and the congregation saw what the Wesley Institute therapist did for Michael and went another step.

They asked the Wesley Institute to start a Wonder Kids Club in their church to serve the Penn Hills area. The church offered the space if the Wesley Institute would provide the experts.

The program became a reality in August.

Heather-Dawn Filipiak, director for the Wesley Institute Family and Child Development Center based in Richland, said Wonder Kids Clubs exist in Richland and Bethel Park, but none were located in the eastern suburbs, though the institute did provide some services.

The clubs provide opportunities for children with autism spectrum disorders to learn social interaction and how to develop those skills in a setting other than school or home.

Both existing clubs were open to autistic children in eastern communities, but they involved long, inconvenient drives for parents who already have overstretched lives, Mrs. Filipiak said.

So the institute agreed to start small, with a summer program, and then went a step farther and decided to stay on.

In two sessions held Mondays through Thursdays in the church's colorful, kid-friendly basement social rooms, preschoolers ages 2 to 6 meet from 12:30 to 3 p.m. and elementary youngsters ages 5 to 12 meet 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. About a half-dozen children participate, working with two therapeutic specialists. They play games, work on music and art therapy projects and learn to interact.

For some of the children, a good day is when they make eye contact, said Rachel Beswarick, one of the therapists. Autistic children tend to isolate themselves from a group and lack social skills to play with other children or behave appropriately at a birthday party.

Mrs. Filipiak said Penn Hills, like many other communities in Pennsylvania, has seen increases in the need for services for autistic children. The state saw an 876 percent growth rate of autism from 1992 to 2003 according to the FightingAutism.org Web site.

She would like to see the Penn Hills center, which is aimed at autistic children from all nearby eastern communities, expand to include older children and young adults. The Torreses' son, though the catalyst for the Penn Hills program, is too old to participate.

The Rev. Logsdon said part of his church's mission is to serve children, youth and families in the community; helping special needs children and their families is a priority.

The church already sponsors an after-school Helping Hands tutoring program run by a retired Penn Hills teacher and librarian, Bobbie Sayers, who is a congregation member. The program is free to any elementary-age child in the Penn Hills School District who could benefit from extra help with school work.

Now, through Wesley Institute, the church is helping to connect parents of autistic children with the aid they need.

Those parents get very little assistance, guidance or comfort, the Rev. Logsdon said.

This is just a small way to remedy that.