If you are preventing your child from participating in the summer camps due to the special needs, you must think about it again. There are special needs summer camps which offer specialized medical care for specific disabilities along with one-to-one buddies to cater to their needs. Your dream of letting your child experience the summer camps can surely be fulfilled.
Kids with needs are no exception. However, the idea for camping seems challenging to the parents and the kids too. Parents worry about the attention their kids might needs while camping and over the course of the days outdoors. Especially when the kids cannot participate in most of the outdoor activities fully. Will the other campers understand your child? Many such questions pop up as a worry in parent’s head.
But the good news is that many camps provide tutoring for individuals with disabilities along with outdoor activities. There are varied choices for kids with special needs and also have highly specialized camps to regulate their needs and accommodate special kids. Special needs camps do exist and lets your child experience the same as any other.
Summer camps are enriching for your kids and you do not want them to miss on the experience and learning. But where should you start? To find the best summer camp for kids with special needs, you have to take into account many factors. The kid’s interest and willingness to participate keeping in mind the age of the child and the best-suited camp for them. The duration, cost, and location follow.
Special Needs Summer Camps For Kids
There are some things you must consider for camps for kids with special needs before selecting it.
1. Know Who is Organizing It:
You must know who is organizing the camp. The camps may be run by any groups such as the schools, private organization or the recreational departments or any non-profit organizations. Your kid’s camping experience with the summer camp with special needs will depend on the people behind it and the organizers. It will impact the philosophy and activities that your kids will indulge in the camps daily.
You have to make sure it is approved by you. The camps that are accredited by the American Camp Association are the ones you must look for as they meet the standards of the camp operations and take care of the quality and health and safety standards of the campers and staff.
2. Know the Type of Camps:
Finding the right camp for your child is important. There are many different summer camps and thus figuring out the one that suits your child right is vital. Some camps serve the special needs for children such as diabetes, or down syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, etc.
The benefits of such camps for special needs help your little one to have an opportunity to be friends with the kids with similar needs and they do not feel different or uncomfortable. They get to learn a specific skill and cope up with strategies together. There are also children camps with and without the special children or kids with disabilities. Thus parents whose kids are academically used to the integrated environment could choose such inclusive camps as the kids try to cope up to the environment.
3. Accessibility:
The children camps with special needs must cater to physical disability. Parents must inquire more about the accessibility feature of the camp areas. The building or the dining facilities or the other areas must be accessible. The campers might require accessible bathrooms with sinks and showers as per their needs.
The safety measures at all the places like the trail or the pool or waterfront. Transportation to pick the child in the morning and drop at the evening as per their schedule must be catered to. Kid and adults with special needs must always get their answers to the needs and be aware of the camping area.
4. Medical and Behavioral Possibilities:
The medical staff must be fully aware of the medical conditions that your child is going through and the behavioral considerations that they will need to maintain and look after. The parents have to let their child being taken care of by other people in the camp. Based on the kid’s needs, you must tailor your questions to ask the camp organizers for special needs, such that they are able to handle your child’s special care.
Questions like, how are the medications given? Are the staff qualified for behavioral training? How are the health related issues or illness in the camps dealt with? Such similar questions must be answered by the camp organizers for being sure to take care of a special child. Also, make a point to talk to your family doctor before going in for such camps. There would be many more questions popping a worried parent’s mind. And it is absolutely important to know what and where your kid is camping.
5. Preparations:
The most important thing that comes into play here is how much you are prepared yourself as a parent and the ways you can prepare your child for their experience. You kid might not have been away from home for very long, however, even a single overnight or a weekend camp could make the child uncomfortable if not prepared well. The parents worry about homesickness that the kid could be suffering too.
Being homesick is a part of the camp experience and it becomes the parent’s duty to keep them encouraged to fight this feeling beforehand. The parents who want to help their children out of homesickness must choose a camp with supportive and warm staff such that the kids are not reminded of their home especially when they are looking for something. Bedtime routines or any other habit or routine must be shared with the staff of the camp organizers such that they could be of help to your child to follow the routine and comfort them.
6. Physical Fitness:
Another aspect that comes in the special needs summer camps is the kid’s emotional and physical state. The special kids cannot run around always like any other kid and hence they must have physical activities that interest them too. For instance camps with wheelchair accessibility, could play sports like baseball and basketball and be taught to make their wheelchair their power.
The kids must have positive support and experience to enjoy their camp. The kids must be taken for a walk and helped with other outdoor experiences too. They must not be felt isolated at any point in time. The reading becomes one of the easiest yet fun activity for such kids. Kids should be free enough for the staff to express any concerns.
The camp whether at day or overnight, the whole point is for the kid to have a wonderful experience. They must be open to new opportunities and see new friends, else there is no point of camping if they are to sit inside the tents and do nothing much.
Thus the special needs summer camps are a great option if taken care of the above points as you do not want to ruin the experience of your little one. Giving them comfort and care along with a blissful experience and joy of learning is the main motive of such beautiful camps.
