What do you kids with higher support needs (can’t attend “regular” camps) do in the summer?

[Anonymous]

Our son attended Camp Aristotle in Chantilly a few summers in a row. It was a good experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you be more specific OP?

My kid has "invisible" autism, what would have been an Aspergers diagnosis a few years back. Rigidity often takes the form of rule following/compliance, so can do very well in classroom environments with a good teacher. But camp is a nightmare because the schedule changes and the less effective/experienced supervision (most camps staff are college age or just out of college) results in high frustration and more volatility. We learned this lesson the hard way.

We still do two weeks of camp each summer. One is through an activity she has done for years and is run by her regular instructors, takes place in the regular facility, and is almost entirely indoors (this is a key factor for my particular kid). It's not full day though. The other is an academic camp run by her school, and again -- familiar instructor and setting, thought that one does have more outdoor time and pushes her comfort zone a bit more. But it went okay last year because the instructors know her challenges/limitations and were willing to work with us. This year we are doing this camp in August to help with transition back to school, hopefully.

Otherwise, we do a sitter/mother's helper for most of the summer. I work for myself so I'm not leaving her entirely alone with a youngish sitter, which I don't think would work unless that was someone with a lot of experience with SN kids, which would likely be incredibly expensive. But I'm around in case things go south, and mostly they just follow a set schedule that we know works for DD. Being at home helps a lot. The sitter wills sometimes take her to the pool nearby, and they usually spend at least an hour at a nearby park unless it's insanely hot. It's not 8 hours with the sitter, more like 4-6 depending on her availability and how much work I have (or the nature of the work I have on my plate).

But my kid doesn't have severe disability. Just a kid with SNs that make camp very, very difficult.

Where do you find a sitter? Have a pre-teen who may need this. Too much conflict that brews and too much trouble with transitions/ directions. So camp is very difficult. Would love to find a college or grad student who is good with SN to model more pro-social ways to go about things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We rotated camps weekly. It wasn’t unusual for ours to wear out her welcome but usually they were fine letting her finish the week knowing she was moving on. It was exhausting of course. Over the years we felt that either church based camps or ones run by orgs getting federal funding tended to be more understanding. Good luck.

That's a terrible idea. Kids with higher support needs struggle with transitions. This is continously making the kid transition and puttign them in environs that don't have the right support. Don't do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We rotated camps weekly. It wasn’t unusual for ours to wear out her welcome but usually they were fine letting her finish the week knowing she was moving on. It was exhausting of course. Over the years we felt that either church based camps or ones run by orgs getting federal funding tended to be more understanding. Good luck.

That's a terrible idea. Kids with higher support needs struggle with transitions. This is continously making the kid transition and puttign them in environs that don't have the right support. Don't do this.

Not the pp you’re responding to but we also rotated every week. Like the pp, it let ds be in camps without wearing out his welcome. Also, ds never made friends at camp, he was just playing solo - so it would have been lonely and boring to spend all summer at the same place. By rotating, there was novelty for him. He didn’t have issues starting new camps weekly.

[Anonymous]

St Joseph's House Cubby Camp?

[Anonymous]

If you are in MOCO both the county camps and City of rockville offers 1:1 counselors as part of ADA and they were great with my son.

[Anonymous]

Diener also has a summer camp for ASD kids; highly recommended.

For younger kids, Basic concepts has been really great.