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[quote=Anonymous]I have a high functioning AuDHD dd and she worked as a CIT all summer last year. She is 14 and will do it again next summer. In her case, she attended this nature camp her whole life and it is truly her "happy place." It is extremely rustic and entirely outdoors (not even a bathroom), and she just has always been able to regulate herself and feel calm in that environment, even though there some things she doesn't love (liking going to the city pool once a week and helping supervise the kids there). For another kid, AuDHD or not, it would be a total nightmare. But in her case, the other CITs are the only people she ever initiates text messaging with or asks to see outside of school, even though they do not go to the same MS/HS. She has also worked as an unpaid "intern" at the inclusive art camp near us during school day out camps, which all my kids used to attend on occasion.

These opportunities have all been free and successful, but it would be a disaster if she were, say, a CIT at a sports or theater camp or structured art camp. She does very well with little kids (vs peers) because they will listen to her ideas for building a fort or inventing something or putting on a play. She still really enjoys creative play, and being a CIT is a socially acceptable ways of finding kids to play with. It is also easier to get little kids on board with her ideas. She also really likes having a "job" and having some autonomy with her time- she enjoys being a CIT more than she did being an older camper.

I don't know if she gains leadership skills, necessarily, but it is wonderful for her to have a place to go where she is comfortable in her own skin and feels genuine connection to others. She goes to a sleepaway camp for 2 weeks every summer, as well, and she has a much harder time there (but still chooses to return - her cousins and siblings attend also). I think of that experience more as helping her learn independence/grit and life skills. But I wouldn't want her to have to do more than 2 weeks of "grit" building in the summer.[/quote]

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