Friday was my daughter Chloe's last day of summer camp -- a six-week program with 500 students, 100 of whom have some type of disability. The model is full inclusion. All kids do all activities, to the best of their abilities, and they learn from each other.
Since Chloe is non-verbal, we relied on daily notes to tell us how she was doing -- and every note assured us she was not only learning, but also having fun. My favorite story was when a child approached Chloe's counselor and asked, "Does she speak sign language?" The counselor said she understood a little, and he signed "friend," played with her the rest of the day, and gave her a hug at the end of the day. The next day, he brought in his favorite stuffed animal so she could play with it. And as he paid more attention to Chloe, the other children did too.
The inclusion model was new for us. For the past three years, Chloe has been in a special school with other children with autism and other delays. This fall, she will attend a public elementary school, and camp showed us how important it is for her to be with typical children even though she requires a different type of instruction.
ABC News recently featured summer camps for children with disabilities. Sean Nienow, director of the National Camp Association, says, camp "is just part of Americana, and if you've got children with particular special needs it's just very difficult for them to readily fit into a mainstream setting."
Peg Smith, the chief executive officer of the American Camp Association, said 17 percent of all accredited summer camps provide programs for children with special needs. "The world today recognizes that kids need to be kids first, regardless of illnesses or special needs," she said. "It only makes sense that the camp experience, if it's truly designed for young people, is accessible to all kids, regardless of their disabilities."
As much as I appreciate the camp that Chloe was able to attend -- and will probably attend for many more summers -- I can't help but think that the high costs of these specialized programs put them out of reach for so many families. I hope that as more people learn about their benefits, they will attract more support and be able to open opportunities for more children.
4 comments:
It sure would be nice if there were registries of full inclusion type camps (both day and residential) to help in summer planning. My son needs an aide and some sort of communication log, but would love a structured and active day camp experience, where most of the kids are not special needs (he didn't like the autism camp we tried this summer). I think it'll require a lot of detective work to find a better camp for next summer.
Thanks for posting this. With several special-needs children in my congregation, I'm looking into how we can minister to them more effectively. I'd also like our regional camp to do more for special-needs kids. (One kid in my congregation ended up going to another denomination's camp because they had a better ministry to/with kids with special needs.)
A BCPSS Parent, Have you seen NICHCY's (the national dissemination center for children with disabilities) publication on summer camps?
http://www.nichcy.org/InformationResources/Documents/NICHCY%20PUBS/camps.pdf
Resources listed aren't all full inclusion, but it's a good start.
@Margie -
Seems like lots of digging for not too much information (at least for the non-disability specific sites that I checked out). I know that probably every camp needs/wants to be accessible, so I suppose my child has a legal right to go to any camp. I'd just like a list of camps within x miles of my house that have predominately "typical" kids, but in the past have served autistic kids with aides and thought that inclusion was positive for everybody involved. I suppose the only solution is to go to the summer camp fair in the spring and talk to the people that come. Then you have to try to figure out if they are being honest or if they are only trying to give you the answer that they think you want to hear. It would be nice if parents of special needs kids could provide some guidance to make the search a little easier.
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