Summer will soon be here!
Children with disabilities sometimes enjoy summer time as an opportunity to
meet other students with similar disabilities, make new friends, and experience
new activities at places such as a camp, skill program, YMCA, or park program.
This can build a sense of identity and self-esteem.
What opportunities has your child experienced during summer programs with
children with or without disabilities?
We started our son in the youth soccer program at our local Y when he was 3. He's now 5 and starting on his third year of soccer. He has high-functioning ASD and has improved so much!
ReplyDeleteThe first year, it was everything we could do to keep him from running away from the field and now he's actually doing the drills, paying attention and running with the ball during the games. Does he have the killer instinct to get a goal? No. =) He just sort of follows the herd as they run up and down the field, but he's staying engaged in it finally and we spend much less time chasing him to the parking lot and more time seeing him feel good about himself when he practices and makes goals during drills. We hope he'll want to stay with it for many years to come!!
The Y programs are fantastic and since the coaches are usually fellow parents (my husband and I coached last year) it's very easy to explain your child's situation and work with the coaches to make it a great experience.
My son had serious problems at YMCA day camp when he went - I got called to pick him up halfway through the week and they asked him not to return. They didn't have staff knowledgeable enough (or enough staff) to support him appropriately. We also tried baseball last year and that was a disaster too. They started out the season really supportive and helpful, but by mid-season they were sick of dealing with his issues and I got a "talking to" by the coach about how he needed to "shape up" or maybe just stay home. So those two didn't work out well. What did work out well was horseback riding lessons - he loved those and the one-on-one attention was great. Also Catholic Youth Camp has been a good fit. They are very compassionate towards him and patient with his issues and since it is a week-long sleepover camp, our family gets a nice break to regroup and breathe a little too.
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