Reply to Not telling camps that my kid has SN

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have not told day/sleepaway camps that my ES kids are special needs for the last few years, and they are fine. They are high functioning and they don't need to take medication, so [b]it seems like the camp are not aware of it[/b] (no phone calls to report issues). They do a few different camps every summer. They have ASD, ADHD and etc.. Do I technically violate the law that I don't check the boxes that they are special needs or they have ASD & ADHD diagnosis?  I don't want to go through the troubles to fill them out the part of SN because some camps request for interview or phone discussion before I can successfully enroll them. I am worried that they get rejected to join their camp, and I know my kids well enough. If they need accomondation one day, I would fill out those parts. [/quote]

You think people can't tell a kid is autistic/adhd? Come on. [/quote]

You 100% can.  My college age DS is a counselor at a camp, and came home complaining to me about this issue.  He basically just said it would be nice if they were told that some kids were going to struggle with certain issues and that it is obvious to him which of "his" kids have ASD or ADHD.  It's a STEM camp for kids.

Tell them.  They will assign an extra counselor, or let the counselor know what to watch for, how to help, etc.  The way OP is doing it means the counselor has to come home and try to figure out what's best by talking to his parents.  Not ideal.[/quote]

This is BS. With due respect to your son, he is not qualified to render any such diagnoses. [/quote]

You're ridiculous.  He's not diagnosing anybody, but it's often obvious when someone is ND.  I doubt he's going home and saying "Charlie has Autism Spectrum Disorder Level 1 with concomitant Anxiety and Inattentive ADHD".  [/quote]

My kid's Kindergarten teacher who has 30 years of experience openly told us she would not have guessed kid has ASD. She doesn't dispute the diagnosis at all and sees the signs since we brought the diagnosis to her attention. She is a fantastic teacher, and she is not qualified to identify kids with ASD (nor does she pretend to be).[/quote]

Similar story - my DS's kindergarten teacher with 15 years of experience was absolutely baffled by him.  No idea what to do with him at all.

He has significant traits of autism but is also highly gifted, very easy-going, no anxiety at all.  Put it together and it's hard to know what to make of him.  He was formally diagnosed at 10, which explained so much.[/quote]

I mean, they are baffled because high functioning autism literally did not exist as a category when they started their careers- so kids who were before just nerdy or dreamy are now officially diagnosed as having disabilities. [/quote]

Obviously knowing or not knowing the label was not the issue, so "high-functioning autism didn't used to exist" was not the issue - the issue was that the kindergarten teacher who had known hundreds and hundreds of kids had no idea what to do with my kid.

Disclosing a label isn't helpful. [b]Camp counselors just have to deal with the kids they get.[/b]  That's how it works.[/quote]

this is the most ignorant comment ever. [/quote]

No, it isn't ignorant. Should parents of bullies or just mean/exclusive kids have to disclose this fact to camps? The reality is that mean kid behavior can be a lot more disruptive and problematic to a school or camp environment than SN, but no one ever suggests that those parents disclose. I'm tired of the insistence that SN need to be disclosed (even to high school or college students) [b]when they don't know the first thing about the issues[/b]. What does an ASD label show? Literally some kids with ASD might get through camp posing no issue whatsoever to other campers or counselors. This is where parents need to know their children and make a judgment call about how much to disclose. But I object strenuously to the notion that parents owe the disclosure to camps or schools without any consideration for the circumstances.[/quote]

That's just it -- they don't know a thing about it, and you not telling them means it stays that way, even if your SN child would have benefitted from someone having some insight into how to engage them better if they needed it and in order to make their camp experience better. Hope it works out for your kid, but if they have a rough experience (that you actually hear about) then I hope you'll reconsider your approach.

Your strenuous objection made me laugh though -- "I strenuously object?" Is that how it works? Hm? "Objection." "Overruled." "Oh, no, no, no. No, I STRENUOUSLY object."
.  [/quote]

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