Summer Camps, Part 2
What types of programs are available?
No two are exactly the same, but, generally, ADD/LD camps focus primarily on one of four main goals. Here's what they are like:
- To Make Friends and Learn to Be a Friend: Camps that promote social skills and personal growth
These camps may be the right choice for children who crave normalcy, friends, and a peer group. Many children who attend camps such as these feel marginalized during the school year, or have difficulty making friends. Counselors are trained to encourage positive relationships among campers and foster self-esteem. Camps stress that they're not merely recreational, nonetheless, campers spend much of their time in traditional camping activities, from ropes courses to nature hikes, kayaking to rock climbing, all under the watchful eye of trained, attentive counselors. One camper wrote home from Summit Camp: "Dear Mom and Dad, You gave me something I never really had (except at home): FRIENDS! I am very thankful and grateful. I love you. Bonnie."
- To Develop Leadership and Life Skills: Outdoor Adventure Camps
Like personal-growth camps, adventure camps incorporate team-building into their curricula. Adventure campers usually leave base camp for more experiential settings - white-water rafting on swift rivers instead of canoeing on calm lakes, horseback riding through mountain ranges instead of nature hikes in the woods. It all adds up to a short-term, high-impact experience that is especially popular with teen campers. Adventure camps create their high-octane programs to promote good decision-making and build self-esteem. In addition, they help kids learn to make decisions, plan, and execute, consciously teaching life skills. For example, counselors at SOAR accompany campers while they do their own laundry at the laundromat, or help them plan their own meals and shop for supplies for a four-day hike.
- To Get an Academic Boost: Educational Summer Sessions at Year-Long ADD/LD School
Some schools that specialize in learning disabilities run remediation and enrichment programs during the summer. Such classroom-based programs may be a wise choice for children with dyslexia or other language-based learning disabilities who may regress academically given only a few hours of academics each week. Although these summer programs are not camps per sé, the strong educational component is generally tempered with time spent outside the classroom.
For example, at Landmark College's High School Summer Session, students can balance their 19 hours of class time a week with activities like orienteering, tennis, or trips to local theaters and attractions. Depending on the institution offering the course of summer study (whether a high school or college), students' ages range from 9 to 19.
- To Modify Behavior and to Improve Learning Skills: Summer Treatment Programs (STPs)
Developed more than 20 years ago at the University at Buffalo, STPs cater specifically to the needs of AD/HD children. Now offered at 10 sites across the country, these 8-week day camps give children ages 5 through 14 intensive behavioral training that they will carry with them throughout the subsequent school year.
Behavior modification sessions are taught by developmental specialists in both individual and group settings. A significant portion of each day is dedicated to age-appropriate games and activities that improve learning skills, academic performance, and self-esteem. STPs put particular focus on the individual - children receive daily feedback, as well as a report at the end of the session, which details interventions made during camp and recommendations for future treatment. According to one study, more than 95 percent of parents report a positive impact on their children, themselves, and their families.
Mom and Dad are key components of the program because, as STP founder William Pelham, Ph.D., says, "When you teach a child with ADD how to get along with others, you also have to teach the parents to maximize the gains in a family setting and beyond." During special evening sessions, parents are taught everything from how to handle problematic behavior to how to help with homework.
Finally, many families opt for traditional, mainstream camps. If your child makes friends easily and can handle a less-structured curriculum, a mainstream camp may be just what's needed for him to just feel like an ordinary kid. Keep in mind that ADDers make up to 20 percent at some mainstream camps, so managing medications is rarely a problem. And almost every camp these days has at least one full-time nurse on staff.
If a child has an intense passion for, say, soccer or swimming or drama, use the summer to bolster these skills, along with a sense of competence and identity. There's a camp to suit virtually every interest or hobby these days. An added benefit - attending a mainstream camp offsets any stigma that can build up during the school year for a child who is taken out of class for special accommodations or trips to the school nurse for meds.
How do you choose?
Now that you've got the basics, it's time to find the right camp for your child. While no one approach guarantees a happy camper, keep a few things in mind. First, solicit your child's input. "Children function best at what they like," says Andrew Adesman, M.D., director of the division of developmental and behavioral pediatrics of Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park, New York. "The other ten months of the year, they are forced to go to school. Don't mandate that they spend the summer doing uninteresting things."
Once you've narrowed your choices, share the camps' information with your child's teacher and ask for her opinion, advises Michele Borba, Ed.D., an educational consultant and author of the social-skills primer Nobody Likes Me Everybody Hates Me. "A teacher will be well-equipped to assess the fit between your child and the camps' programs."
In the end, make your decision by considering all the options available to children with ADD but not by considering only your child's ADD. "The bottom line is, you want your child's camp experience to be fun and positive," says Dr. Borba. "Yes, it can teach your child new skills, but the most important thing it will do is boost your child's confidence in being away from home and handling life without you around. That's a plus for every child."
