For the Camp Kodiak posters, any sense of how obvious the neurodivergence is? I have a kid who presents as neurotypical for the first 5 minutes you are around him, but quickly it’s clear that he struggles in reciprocal conversation and perspective taking. That said, we have lots of friends and family that think we are oversensitive about his challenges and say unhelpful things like “he’s a little awkward or immature but nothing striking.” I know they mean well, but he has real struggles making friends and always has, and it is clear why when you watch his peer interactions.

Still, he doesn’t have insight about how his behavior affects his ability to make friends, so when we have sent him to social skills groups and neurodivergent camps, he just returns saying the other kids have problems, but doesn’t the commonality. So, for a sleepaway camp, one that has visible supports and kids that are explosive, etc. - he likely won’t do well because of his own judgmental stuff. We try a lot to gently (and sometimes even less gently) help him understand his social skills deficits, but so far it hasn’t been effective. So wondering if Kodiak would have the social skills supports but have the vibe of an everyday camp. When I called and spoke with the director, it seemed great. But she did mention that there were some cabins that required more support with everyday function- and that’s what made me uncertain.

NP who is lurking on this thread to see recommendations. Didn’t even know I was looking for this today, but based on some comments DH made yesterday, I think this is what DH was looking for.

Thanks, all of you!

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Looking for a camp specifically for kids on autism spectrum. Ideally near Dc? So maybe she could make friends she’d be able to stay in touch with? Or if not local at least in mid Atlantic?

My kid with your kid's same profile had a great time at Camp Letts in Edgewater, MD.

We did Camp Easterseals UCP last summer for a week. My son and I also did family camp there the year before and loved it!

Anonymous wrote:Our ASD kid had a great experience at Camp Dark Waters in New Jersey (just outside Philadelphia). It’s small and Quaker and nice and there are quirky kids. It also is a good low key camp experience, the bathrooms are nice (tho u have to take a 3 min shower and they enforce it!) and there is allllways choice in activities. A lot of the sporty activities are weird made-up sports, aka Roof Ball. Some of the activities are really wacky like “Being British,” where they practiced accents and phrases and stuff. Nice nice people. And it’s small.

This one looks potentially perfect!!

Camp Nuhop in Ohio is great!