The Family Center on Technology and Disability

“Mom, I Want to Go to Camp”

Three years ago, in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City ’s World Trade Center , a boy in Martinsville , IN , far from Manhattan but as close to the carnage there as a TV screen, remained traumatized. His school performance deteriorated. Socially, he retreated inward, remote from friends and family. Each night, he crept into his mother’s room to sleep at the base of her bed. His mother was worried for him. Counseling hardly made a dent in his depression and corrosive fear. Then, one day, in the early spring of 2002, he announced to his mother, “Mom, I want to go to camp.” He had never been to camp before, nor had he ever evidenced interest in going. “I was astounded,” his mother recalls. In many ways, she remembers, “his fear and depression had left him disabled, and my first response to his announcement was probably the same as that of any parent of a child with disabilities might have been: I said, ‘Are you sure you want to be so far away from your mother?’”

The boy got his wish and went to camp. The result of the camp experience, his mother says, “was amazing.” In place of the fear-stricken, timid boy who had departed his home in June was a young man transformed. “What that camp returned to me was a child who was resilient and positive and who never slept at the foot of my bed again,” his mother says. “As it is with kids with special needs, the impact of being with a group of peers, of contributing to the group, of learning how to cope, how to adapt, how to be resilient, was so profound.” Although her son was not classified as a child with special needs, his mother, Peg L. Smith, Executive Director of the American Camp Association, declares, “For kids with special needs and their families, whose struggles with their daily reality can seem relentless and inescapable, camp can have a life-changing positive impact.”

As the camp selection process for families of children with special needs peaks in the early spring, we examine the summer camp experience and the resources currently available to maximize its benefits for special needs children and families.

Peg L. Smith Speaks

It was between 1977 and 1989, when she was Indiana’s Director of the Child Adult Resource Services Children’s Division, where she was responsible for collaborating with and forging alliances with an array of state agencies in providing Head Start and developmental disability services to public and pre-schools, that she had her seminal hands-on experience with children with special needs and their families. “Since then,” she says, “those families and their kids have always held a very special place in my heart.”

Prior to 1977, she served as a Head Start teacher. In 1989-95, she served in the Office of the Governor [Indiana] as director of the state’s $43.3 million Step Ahead initiative, which she implemented in 92 Indiana counties in two years. During that period, Ms. Smith also created the state’s first Bureau of Child Development. After serving for three years as Executive Director of the Indiana Youth Institute, she was named in 1998 to her current post as Executive Director of the 100-year-old, 7,000-member American Camp Association (ACA). A community of camp professionals, ACA accredits more than 2,400 camps nationwide. To achieve ACA accreditation, each camp must meet up to 300 standards for health, safety and program quality in the following categories: A safe, nurturing camp environment

• Caring, competent adult role models
• Healthy, developmentally-appropriate experiences
• Service to the community and the natural world
• Opportunities for leadership and personal growth
• Discovery, experiential education and learning opportunities
• Continuous self-improvement

ACA educates camp owners and directors in the administration of key aspects of camp operation, program quality and the health and safety of campers and staff. In addition to establishing guidelines for policies, procedures and practices, the organization assists the public in selecting camps that meet industry-accepted and government-recognized standards. The ACA Find-a-Camp database provides families with many ways to select the ACA-accredited camp that is most appropriate for their individual needs.

Recognized among camp professionals for her compelling public speaking and motivational style, Peg Smith has presented at state and national conferences and has served on federal grant review teams.

Supporting our interview with Ms. Smith are resources to assist parents and families of children with special needs in selecting an appropriate summer camp. We also feature members of our Knowledge Network. The members spotlighted this month focus on various aspects of the special needs summer camp experience. We invite you to contact these members for further information.

Please share this newsletter with other organizations, families and professionals who may benefit from it. We invite you to contact us at http://www.fctd.info. We welcome feedback, new members and all who contribute to our growing knowledge base.

Summer Camp 2005: Give a Kid a Chance to Be a Kid  

An Interview with Peg L. Smith, Executive Director, American Camp Association

Peg Smith believes strongly that summer camp may be the one time each year when, for a week or two or longer, a child with disabilities, with special needs, is not categorized and regarded according to his or her disabilities. “Camp is, or should be, a child-centered environment,” she declares, “a place where counselors of course pay heed to a child’s medical and emotional needs, but, more importantly, create an environment that accommodates a child’s need for enjoyment, for full participation.”

The goal of a child-centered camp environment for any child, but especially children with special needs, she notes, “is experience-based life learning.”

If achieving that goal requires a 1-1 counselor/camper ratio, “camps will do that,” she says. “A child with special needs will do traditional arts and crafts,” she explains, but the child-centered camp experience begins, not ends, with those activities. In a child-centered environment, she continues, “a child [with disabilities] will also have the opportunity to ride horses, to swim, to engage in other physical activities.” What it comes down to, she declares, “is a camp’s ability to find ways to accommodate ‘normal’ camp activities and allow for full immersion of a child into those activities while taking care of that child’s special needs.”

“Parents of kids with special needs often think their options are very limited, but that is not so.” The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires facilities, including camps, to be accessible for all persons, has certainly opened up opportunities, she notes. “We see more and more of our camps accommodating children – and adults – with special needs.”

In fact, more than 17% of the American Camp Association’s (ACA) 2,400 camps provide services and programs for children with physical and/or mental challenges. Ninety-two ACA camps specialize in ADD; 57 camps specialize in programs for children with cancer; 88 camps are focused on children with diabetes; 87 camps specialize in mobility limitations; 76 camps specialize in vision impairment. According to Ms. Smith, these represent just a few out of about 20 specialized camp categories, which include autism, brain injury, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis and hearing impaired.

She adds, “There are also a number of camps that will mainstream, that will find ways to accommodate children with special needs.”

Accessibility Is a Top Parental Concern

When seeking a camp for a child with special needs, accessibility, Ms. Smith notes, is often the top parental concern. “If a parent is concerned with accessibility issues, she says, “the best thing for that parent to do is visit the camp, if possible, or talk to another parent who has been involved with that camp.” A camp can always be asked for a parent reference, she adds. “Although parents need to do their due diligence, we find that most rely on parent-to-parent references.” Parent-to-parent references should not be parents’ lone reference, she comments, “but it does help to talk to another parent, particularly if a camp’s terrain or activity level may make it difficult to accommodate children with special needs.” Parents, she continues, “need to work with that camp to determine which safety and medical accommodations and mainstream programming and appropriate facilities are available.”

According to Ms. Smith, it is never too soon in a child’s life to begin considering camps. “Parents, very early on, when their children are toddlers, are starting to think about the opportunities for their children to have a variety of life experiences. Camp is certainly among those opportunities, and parents of special needs children ought to begin planning for their child’s camp activities when they plot day care strategies.”

Parents of children with special needs should be looking for opportunities to provide variety and life skills, she declares. There are many of those opportunities available.

Sometimes, she explains, “we’ll find that the camper with special needs likes being at a camp with kids who are dealing with similar kinds of disabilities, camps where they’re no longer different, where they are the same as everyone else, where they’re allowed to have a group living experience and make friends.” Often, however, “the child with special needs wants to be mainstreamed. The camp experience allows that child to choose.”

Respite Is Accommodated

Respite for parents and siblings has become a higher profile issue, Ms. Smith notes, and there are camps that accommodate the need for respite. “All the camps that are working with families that have special needs have become very much aware of the respite need and are trying to provide assistance in that area.” [The ACA national office] is located on about 2,500 acres owned by Indiana University , she explains “and there are several camps on this property, all of which are specialty camps that work with respite programs and provide those services for parents.”

Respite programs provide long weekends, she explains. “Camp for the children may be for a week or two, but camps throughout the year may also offer three- and four-day camp experiences for the kids while giving the parents three or four days of respite.”

Many respite camps, she explains, “bring the siblings in because that allows all the siblings to be with one another in a fun environment and to share positive experiences as a family.”

These respite camps will then bring parents in for the last day or two of a session, allowing them to see their child in an unaccustomed setting. Says Ms. Smith, “They see their child experience a level of independence that is not possible in the child’s everyday life. They will see their child doing things that they never imagined their child could do.” Respite camps are also child-centered, she notes. “They’ve created child environments because their number one goal is to make sure a child is a child, not the sum of his or her disabilities.”

What parents learn, she says, is that counselors concentrate on their child as a person first. “When counselors do that, it is amazing what kids can accomplish. When the adults are so concentrated on what a child is unable to do then often the child can’t do it.”

A Child’s Rite – and Right – of Passage

The camps that focus on specific special needs, she explains, concentrate on what the child can do, celebrating those capabilities instead of accentuating the disabilities emphasized throughout the year. Camp, Ms. Smith declares, “is about what the child can do, what the child should have an opportunity to do, what the child has a right to do.”

At its best, she adds, camp is a child’s rite of passage. “Every child should have that experience, regardless of whether or not the child has disabilities,” she says. “That’s the commitment that many of these camps have made. The disease, the limitation, will be carefully taken care of, but it will be secondary to the camp’s main goal: to let the child be a child.”

It’s Not a Buzz Phrase

“It sounds so trite to say, ‘Give kids a chance to be kids’ but it is anything but trite. There’s a real concept there, not just a buzz phrase,” she says. For children with special needs, she adds, the camp experience represents involvement in interdependent relationships in which kids with special needs get a chance to feel responsibility for other members of the group.

Special needs children, she continues, “live in a world where most of the time everyone is responsible for them. That does something to a child’s psyche.” A camp experience gives them a chance to feel responsible to the rest of the group. “That is a powerful opportunity and lesson for any child, but particularly for children who feel like everybody is always taking care of them. In the camp environment, they not only feel the responsibility for others, they have the means to act on it.” They can say to themselves, “This is how I contribute; this is how I am an important member of this group. It’s important that I am here.” That is a very empowering and significant lesson.

Camp affords children the opportunity to explore these relationships, she explains. “It is having counselors and their peers involve them in decision-making, in choice. Regardless of their level of communication, which, in some cases is a challenge, there are people who are reaching out to them in a genuinely communicative way – a two-way communication whenever and wherever possible.”

Many of these young people are talked to not with, she observes, or when they can communicate, it is not acknowledged that they can. That is not the case in special needs camps, according to Ms. Smith, because in these camps the children are full, maximum participants. “The activities, in some respects, become secondary to the relationships formed,” she states. “It’s about the sense of community and the experiential nature of what is going on.” And what is going on there, she adds, “is tangible, it’s not something going on around them or to them. I think that is why, when parents come to camp to observe their children, they are amazed at what these kids can accomplish and do in a camp experience that is designed to maximize their potential.” In their other life, away from camp, “the adults kids deal with are not necessarily dedicated to maximizing a child’s potential and instead, out of necessity, must focus on a child’s limitations.”

Can-Do

“What I love when I talk to those who run these camps is, whenever someone says to them, ‘I don’t’ think that can be done,’ or, ‘I don’t think that activity will be safe,’ they will put their heads together to find out how something can be done and done safely,” Ms. Smith says. “If it can’t, they won’t do it.” More often than not, however, “they can find ways that a child can participate and in a safe way. It may mean that administrators and counselors had to expend a little extra effort or think a little harder, but they find a way.”

Camp administrators go to these lengths, she explains, “because they are seeking every way possible to let that child be a child. It’s also beneficial to the child to have him or her involved in this can-do process, this positive, imaginative approach to solving difficult problems. This allows them to take a pro-active stance rather than just being on the receiving end of other people’s decisions about them.”

“When you talk at length with someone with a disability you hear so often that what they become to others is someone for whom decisions must be made,” Ms. Smith continues. “I can’t imagine me living my entire life with people seeing me and judging me by what I can’t do. To give kids the opportunity sooner rather than later to be recognized for what they can do and who they are is so beneficial.”

Young people who are unable to communicate in a conventional way, or even at all, are still people, she declares. “They are individuals. They have feelings, thoughts and opinions and they want to participate in their own lives, in the life of others and in the community and in the world around them. It’s a matter of others learning to communicate with them, not the other way around.”

Chameleon Camps

Some camps function purely as special needs camps. Others, mainstream camps, operate a traditional camp all year but transition to a special needs camp for the final two weeks of the summer session. For example, she says, the Cheley Colorado Camps run a camp for burn victims at the conclusion of the summer session, for which they import the professional personnel, the trained staff, to run a specialized camp. She also cites North Carolina ’s Blue Star camps, which run their traditional mainstream residential camps and then a specialty camp at summer’s end “to provide a camp experience in a much more intentional way for a population that may not otherwise be able to have the opportunity for such an experience.”

Some camps bear the cost of transition to a special needs function as part of their contribution, their goodwill, to the community in which they are located. Some will offer specialized sessions at no cost or at a reduced cost, or the camps offer scholarships from local hospitals in order to help parents defray the cost.

Steady Growth of Special Needs Camps

Since 2002, Ms. Smith reveals, the number of special needs camps has grown 9%. “This steady growth tells me that there is general recognition that the camp experience has much to offer to children with special needs – and for all kids,” Ms. Smith observes.

Today, she continues, families and schools are so focused on ensuring that children acquire the requisite academic skills that all children, regardless of whether or not they have special needs, are having diminished opportunities for experiential-based life skills and learning throughout the school year.

“I think parents in general are hungry for these opportunities for their kids, as are the kids. What we’re finding is that the camp experience for all kids is growing in its marketability.”

Assistive Technology Enhances the Camp Experience

Many special needs campers with communications disabilities bring their own AT equipment to camp with them. Fortunately, Ms. Smith says, camp counselors and administrators are familiar with the equipment, make sure the child can use it, and that it enhances the child’s ability to communicate with other campers and with counselors.

Across the board, she explains, “assistive technology is enhancing the camp experience.”

Camp Bradford Woods, affiliated with the University of Indiana , attracts counselors from various specialty areas within the university. This helps to meet whatever special need a camper has that will enhance his or her experience, including AT. The idea, she says, “is not to take something away from the child but to add to the child’s experience, to make it strongly positive.”

Medical equipment to aid Bradford Woods campers is always present on-site, she adds. “The medical and protective aspects of special needs camping are never neglected,” she notes. The emphasis, however, is redirected toward helping a child get the most of his or her experience. Technology, she assures, is like medical equipment. “If that’s the equipment that’s needed, then the appropriate personnel and AT equipment are accommodated.”

Children’s Personal Aides Are Accommodated

Some special needs campers are accompanied by personal aides, who are accommodated by an increasing number of camps. “Camps, in fact, invite that kind of support,” Ms. Smith notes. “Everybody benefits from the presence of individuals who are providing personal assistance to these children.”

According to Ms. Smith, the camper-to-counselor ratio at these camps, at 1-1, is much higher than the 3-1 ratio at mainstream camps.

Camps invite the aides to participate in pre-counselor training, so that they are fully integrated in and comfortable with a camp’s counselor program. “Everyone benefits because these individuals are not only the aide to a particular child, they are counselors. They are qualified to provide skillful assistance to other campers who are communicating with and are participating in activities with the child to whom they are assigned as an aide.”

100 Years of Camping

The evolution of the camp experience extends back more than 100 years. At the outset, according to Ms. Smith, camp was education-focused while also emphasizing the outdoor experience. Then came a heavier concentration on recreation. What’s happened in the last 15-20 years, she notes, is a reversion to the earliest, turn-of-the-20th-century traditions and values anchored in experiential education and the understanding, especially in the past decade, that camps’ major objective is human development.

The earliest program for campers with special needs was established in 1921, in Ohio , at Camp Allen .

Education, in various forms, has always been a camping component. In speeches and written communications, Peg Smith cites the emphasis on freedom and joy in the camp experience and the importance of combining of intellectual and physical pursuits in the teachings of famed educators such Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Maria Montessori (1870-1952), John Dewey (1859-1952) and Howard Gardner (1943-). Camping has moved away from academic education – “Camp isn’t summer school,” Ms. Smith says – to an emphasis on the experiential aspects of education.

Experiential education, she explains, encourages “emotional intelligence, physical growth, and the social development that is as important as any sort of cognitive development.” In any activity in which children are involved, she adds, “there is always some element of science, environmental education, math; but the camp experience is based in experience, not in formal education. Camp is much more holistic, as opposed to a variation of summer school.”

There are, of course, books and literature at camps, but their value in a camp setting is as reference materials, not as the core of a camp experience. This is fine with Smith, who states, “As a parent, I want camp to allow children to become unplugged and to learn in a way that’s much more natural, to be full participants in the learning process. That goes double for special needs kids.”

Many camps work with schools in order to provide a yearlong learning process for kids, she explains, because physical, emotional and social development add value to the academic learning. “It is not – and should not – be an either/or choice between experiential and academic learning,” she declares.

Parents who visit day care facilities see very young children at play and say, “But they’re not learning anything; they’re playing.” She adds, “Everything that that day care teacher is doing is an intentional lesson that’s being learned. Kids learn through play. Adults are no different; they learn best when they are actively, physically involved.”

A Passion for Laughter and Joy

For many children who have severe disabilities, she observes, the notion of play is almost alien. For them, every day is a struggle. “Yet, every child’s laugh is a gift and every child should have the opportunity to smile and to laugh and to have some joy,” Ms. Smith says. “Making sure these kids get the opportunities to have joy is critical to their human development.”

“I am very passionate about the importance of laughter and joy. Partly, that passion is a result of my previous experiences working with special needs kids, and also as a parent.” Like most people, she notes, “my personal and professional life embellish each other.” For children for whom life is a grind, a chore, a struggle, the moments of joy that camp provides “are worth everything, not just for the children, but for their parents and for the other individuals who work with these kids.”

Sophisticated Counselor Training, Nationwide Recruitment

With the steady proliferation of special needs camps, counselor recruiting and training is evolving in sophistication.

Explains Ms. Smith, “The young people who become counselors at special needs camps have been recruited at college camp fairs. These individuals, medical students, education and special education majors, will seek out camp counseling opportunities that allow them to work with populations in a very different and unique environment where they will learn as much as they will share.”

For most camps, she adds, the recruiting process begins at college camp fairs. The camps provide special training for the counselors they select according to individual camps’ accommodation and facility requirements. Camps also work closely and carefully with the parents of campers to ascertain individual camper needs for the coming summer and will provide any kind of special programming or special training that the camp administrators believe the incoming counselors require. For example, if a camp is an ADD camp, behavior training based on specific emotional needs, and how programming is scheduled and organized, will be part of counselor training.

The camp recruiters’ nets span the nation as they visit colleges having career fairs or camp fairs. Many camps have specific camp fairs attracting staff recruiters from camps nationwide to interview and meet counselor candidates to learn whether or not candidates are a good match for their camps and to tell potential counselors about the kinds of programs offered and their population needs. “This is a very significant national effort that peaks in intensity around now, in March,” she notes.

Some Camps Are Already Full

For campers’ parents, February and March often mark the culmination of their camp search. In New England and New York , some camps are already full, with waiting lists. Some camps, she says, have discontinued the popular sibling discounts because the camps, including special needs camps, no longer depend on incentives to fill their camper rosters.

In the Midwest , many camps recommend that camper registration be completed by the end of March, at the latest.

In the South, early-bird registration opportunities begin in mid-January and extend to the end of March.

In the West, specifically in California , many agency and municipal camps do not begin registration until April 1. Private camps, however, begin early registration as early as the previous fall.

For special needs camps, the demand for camper spots is on the rise due to the increase in earlier diagnosis of many disabilities and conditions. Says Ms. Smith, “We now have 53 camps that specialize in asthma, for example. But every camp we work with has to be aware of asthma because so many campers, and their parents, have concerns about asthma. We have about 80 camps that focus on autism, representing a 3% annual growth rate. The same with ADD, we had about a 4% growth in that area with 92 camps specializing in that. We didn’t have HIV camps 20 years ago, but now we have 26 camps that specialize in HIV and AIDS.”

Adds Ms. Smith, “Foundations and organizations are sponsoring camps and specializing in providing services to families and special needs children.” Celebrities, among them actor Paul Newman with his Hole-in-the-Wall camps, and NASCAR driver Richard Petty, also operate camps for children with special needs, she notes. “As diagnoses of disabilities continue to proliferate, so, too, will corresponding specialized camps.”

The Future: An Incremental Increase in Special Needs Camps

The future for special needs camps, five to 10 years from now, will feature two key elements, according to Ms. Smith: a continuing increase in the number of camps to help children with disabilities to learn how to mainstream; and an increased percentage of special needs camps working in cooperation with school systems. Such collaboration, she says, “may be a somewhat lengthy learning experience for schools, camps, parents and for the child/camper, but it has the potential to provide so much good that just has to happen.”

RESOURCES

Articles

 Finding a Camp for Your Child with Special Needs
KidsHealth for Parents Magazine 2005
A primer for parents seeking the appropriate summer camp program for their child with special needs, the article describes the key characteristics of various types of camps, including inclusionary, mainstream and those designed for children with specific special needs. In addition, the article explains how to look for and select a camp. The author offers a list of questions and considerations that parents can use to evaluate the growing number of options available to children with disabilities. Among the considerations are: camp philosophy, session duration, cost and availability of scholarships, staff to camper ratio, staff training, availability of medical staff and special diets, and camp transportation.
http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/finding_camp_special_needs.html

Sending Your Child with Special Needs to Camp
Kids Health for Parents Magazine 2001
The article provides tips for parents on how to prepare themselves, as well as their child with special needs, for the summer camp experience, how to share information about a child with camp administrators, what to pack, and how to deal with anxiety and homesickness.
http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/system/ill/sending_child_camp.html

 Summer Camps for Kids with Learning and Attention Problems
Schwab Learning Center 2005
To help parents organize their camp search, this article describes a process for assessing a child's needs and desires and for obtaining needed information from camp staff in order to successfully match a child with a camp. http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=285

Fact Sheet
Fun and Leisure: Summer Camp Resources 2005
National Center on Physical Activity and Disability (NCPAD) This NCPAD fact sheet provides resources such as published camp guides and online camp search engines to assist interested individuals in searching for the camp that fits their interests, needs and goals. Camps include residential and day facilities and offer a range of activities, from sports to arts and crafts. http://www.ncpad.org/fun/fact_sheet.php?sheet=88&view=all

Websites/Directories/Guides

Summer Camps for Children with Disabilities: 2005 Produced by the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY), this highlights directories and listings of summer camps. Half the directories specifically intended for children with disabilities. The other half are directories listing camp opportunities available to all children. Most directories listed are available in print version. Prices are listed when appropriate. http://www.nichcy.org/pubs/genresc/camps.htm

KidsCamps.com
Online since 1995, KidsCamps.com is the Internet's most comprehensive summer camp resource guide and online camp directory of day, overnight, special needs, sports, special interest, art, music and family camps, along with camps for rent or lease. The guide helps parents locate camps throughout the United States and Canada , Europe , South America , Australia , the Caribbean and Asia . http://www.kidscamps.com/

Therapy/Respite Camps for Kids
This site spotlights information about summer camps that focus on therapy for children with special needs and/or respite for children and their families. The site is separated into five U.S. regions, Canada , Central America and Greece . The site also provides links to other useful web pages that list camps for children with special needs. http://wmoore.net/therapy.html

MySummerCamps.com This resource guide includes a wide array of special needs summer camps. Categories include: asthma, autism, blood disorders, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, developmental disabilities, diabetes, epilepsy, hearing impairments, learning disabilities/ADHD, mental retardation, muscular dystrophy, physical disabilities, speech impairments, spinal bifida, Tourette Syndrome and visual impairments. http://www.mysummercamps.com/camps/Special_Needs_Camps/

Camps for Children with Diabetes This website provides links to 118 camps nationwide that accommodate children with diabetes. Almost all the camps listed here provide financial assistance to parents of children who are unable to pay the full camp fees. http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/camps/

Peterson’s.com
This well-known guide to U.S. and international summer camps lists more than 3,000 camps and features a special needs category that includes 56 U.S. summer camps that accommodate children with special needs. For more information, contact:
Peterson’s
Princeton Pike Corporate Center
2000 Lenox Drive
P.O. Box 67005
Lawrenceville , NJ 08648
Phone: 1-609-896-1800
http://www.petersons.com/summerop/code/ssector.asp

Washington State Summer Camps and Programs for Children with Special Needs
The site lists camps alphabetically. The directory, produced by Children's Resource Center and the Center for Children with Special Needs at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center , Seattle , WA , provides links to Pacific Northwest summer camps and to resource information. The directory contains updated links to 65 summer camp programs. For more information, contact:
Children’s Resource Line
Phone: (866) 987-2500, option 4 (toll free); (206) 987-2500, option 4 http://www.cshcn.org/resources/campcalendar.cfm?intro=yes

Overview of Summer Camps for Kids with Special Needs
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center provides information on camps in the Greater Cincinnati, OH area for children with a range of special needs, including: asthma, Crohn’s Disease, dermatological conditions, diabetes, epilepsy, hearing impairments, hemophilia, juvenile arthritis, and ventilator dependent/tracheostomy. A directory of Cincinnati area summer camps for children with special needs may be downloaded in PDF format.
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
3333 Burnet Avenue , Cincinnati , Ohio 45229-3039
513-636-4200 | 1-800-344-2462 | TTY: 513-636-4900 http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/visit/support/camps/

KinderStart State-By-State Special Needs Listing
This website features a state-by-state listing of summer camp facilities geared to special needs children. http://www.kinderstart.com/childdevelopment/specialneedschild/schoolsorganizations/

Camps for Special Needs
Produced by Answers4Families, this directory lists camps for children with special needs in Nebraska , Colorado and elsewhere in the Midwest . http://www.answers4families.org/family/info/camp.html

Brave Kids: Help for Children with Chronic, Life-Threatening Illnesses and Disabilities This directory lists thousands of resources for children with special needs, plus local resources in these areas: San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles , Orange County (CA), Washington , DC / Baltimore , Seattle , Memphis , Pensacola , Fort Lauderdale , Palm Beach and the Tampa/St. Petersburg Bay Area. http://www.bravekids.org/

Very Special Camps
This wide-ranging website features a small special needs section that lists nine camps. http://www.veryspecialcamps.com/cgi-bin/vs_campnamesearch.cgi

The Camp Channel
An all-in-one camp directory that offers assistance in looking for a camp or for a job at a camp , plus listings of camps, camp directors and camp owners nationwide. A special needs sections lists summer camps for children with special needs in the following categories: ADD, AIDS, asthma, behavioral disabilities cancer, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, learning disabilities, multiple sclerosis and physical disabilities. http://www.campchannel.com/campers/search/

Camp Resource.com
This summer camp directory for camps that focus on children with special needs features 68 camps nationwide and in Canada . http://www.campresource.com/camps/spec_needs_camps.cfm

CampSearch.com
CampSearch lists 33 camps for children with special needs, all located in the U .S. http://www.campsearch.com/default.jsp

KNOWLEDGE NETWORK MEMBERS

Kris’ Camp, Connecticut
Now preparing for its inaugural session August 7-13, 2005 , Kris' Camp, Connecticut is a new branch of a theray intensive/respite camp for children with autism and autistic-like challenges and their families. Kris' Camp has been in operation in California since 1995, in Arizona since 2002 and in Florida since 2003. Kris' Camp, Connecticut focuses on children ages 4-12. The 2005 camp will be held at the Interlaken Inn in Connecticut ’s Berkshire foothills.

The camps are named after Kris Moore ( 5/30/1988 -11/9/1993). Kris suffered from infantile spasms, a form of epilepsy, and died from head injuries sustained in a fall. He is the son of Kris’ Camp founders Kathy Berger and Will Moore.

Kris' Camp hires licensed professional art, education, music, occupational, physical and speech therapists supported by assistants who are working on degrees in one of those fields or who have had experience working with special needs children.

The camp takes a positive treatment approach based on several empirical findings and theories. Camp therapists regard autism as a movement disorder centered on he inability to efficiently initiate, sustain, inhibit or transition movements. The therapists believe that when a child’s system is organized through sensory input, then the child can regulate and modulate motor output more effectively.

Camp therapists regard behaviors as communication and assess whether an individual’s self-initiated seeking of sensory input is an effective means of system organization. If not, they assist the child in identifying a more appropriate accommodation for daily life. The therapists’ approach is competency-based and provides the least amount of assistance possible to promote the child’s independence. Within this framework, Kris’ Camp therapists encourage campers’ parents to contribute to treatment direction through written/verbal input.

For more information, contact:

Kris’ Kamp , Connecticut
15824 South 29th Street
Phoenix , AZ 85048
Phone: (480) 829-1487
Contact: Leidy van Ispelen, Assistant Director
LeidyvanIspelen@msn.com
http://wmoore.net/kcconnecticut.htm
http://wmoore.net/kriscamp.html

Association of Hole in the Wall Camps
Hole in the Wall Camps were started by actor Paul Newman in 1988 and he has been the driving force behind their expansion. Attended by than 83,000 children from 34 states and 31 nations since their inception, Hole in the Wall Camps represent the world's largest family of camps for children with serious illnesses and life threatening conditions.

Camp a ctivities are structured to allow campers to experience success no matter what their disease or disability. All of this occurs under state-of-the-art, but unobtrusive, 24-hour medical supervision.

Stocky Clark is the Association’s Executive Director: “At Hole in the Wall Camps, children with serious illnesses can have the best week of their lives, and we don’t charge the families anything to participate. Parents can feel a sense of comfort that their children are in good hands. Our approach is child-centered therapeutic recreation. What that means is that every child can do every activity regardless of their illness. This is an unusual approach. If we have a child in a wheelchair and they want to go up a ropes course, our staff will make it possible for them to go up that ropes course. This is possible because of our approach and our very talented and dedicated staff and volunteers.”

For additional information, contact:

The Association of Hole in the Wall Camps
265 Church Street, Suite #503
New Haven, Connecticut 06510
Phone: (203) 562-1203
Fax: (203) 562-1207

Email: info@holeinthewallcamps.org
www.holeinthewallcamps.org

For further information, contact:
Camp Horizons
127 Babcock Hill Road
South Windham , CT 06266
Phone: (860) 456-1032
Fax: (860) 456-4721
Email: staffpage@camphorizons.org
http://www.camphorizons.org/

Camp Greentop
Founded in 1937, Camp Greentop is one of the oldest residential camps in America designed specifically for people with special needs. The camp is accredited by the American Camp Association and is licensed by the State of Maryland for Youth Camp Certification.

Camp Greentop is an all-inclusive residential camp for individuals with all levels of ability. Every new camper undergoes an acceptance process that includes an interview with a camp administrator to help provide administrators and counselors with additional insights about the camper’s strengths.

Sixty campers with a range of abilities participate in each session. The traditional youth camp programs are designed for campers ages 7-21 who are supported by over 70 trained camp staff. Camp Greentop offers a 2:1 camper to counselor ratio with the ability to offer 1:1 support to some campers.

Campers travel with their cabin groups to activities such as a swimming, arts and crafts, nature, horseback riding, music, sports and games. Structured camp days include two activities in the morning and two activities in the afternoon. Each day ends with an evening program such as a dance, campfire, talent show or group games.

For further information, contact:

Camp Greentop
The League Camping & Therapeutic Recreation
1111 East Cold Spring Lane
Baltimore , MD 21239
Phone: (410) 323-0500, ext. 366
Fax: (410) 323-3298
Contact: Jonathan Rondeau, Camping and Therapeutic Director
jrondeau@leagueforpeople.org
http://www.campgreentop.org/greentop.htm

Camp New Connections
Camp New Connections focuses on improving the social skills of children with Asperger’s disorder, autism spectrum disorders, pervasive development disorders and non-verbal learning disabilities.

Based in the Center for Neurointegrative Service (CNS) at McLean Hospital, the largest psychiatric facility affiliated with Harvard University Medical School, Camp New Connections is a six-week summer day camp that combines, within a therapeutic context, activities such as drama, field games, arts and crafts, communication games, swimming and pragmatics.

The program serves children ages 9-17, who can benefit from small groups and individual attention. The highly trained staff is supervised by: Joseph Gold, M.D., Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Programs, McLean Hospital ; Cynthia Kaplan, Ph.D., Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Programs, McLean Hospital ; Roya Ostovar, Ph.D., Program Director, Center for Neurointegrative Services and Director, Camp New Connections.

For more information, contact:
Camp New Connections
McLean Hospital
115 Mill Street
Belmont , MA 02478
Phone: Tel: (617) 855-2858
Fax: Fax: (617) 855-2833
http://www.mclean.harvard.edu/patient/child/cnc.php

Camp Arrowhead
Located on Lake Cochituate in Middlesex County , MA , Camp Arrowhead is a day and residential camp that has served children and adults with disabilities since 1957.

The camp provides social and physical recreation for disabled and non-disabled individuals alike ages 5 and older. The program is sponsored by the Natick , MA Recreation and Parks Department in cooperation with the Parents Association of the Handicapped.

The day camp portion runs for six weeks at the Natick Amputee Veteran's Center from the end of June through the first week in August, while the residential portion entails a six day/five night trip to Lion's Camp Pride in New Durham, NH, two weeks following the end of day camp. At Lion’s Camp Pride , each camper is paired with a middle school or high-school aged volunteer for the duration of the week. The campers sleep in cabins staffed by at least two staff members. A fulltime RN and a paramedic accompany the 12-member staff. Transportation is via coach bus, a wheelchair van and rented vans.

For more information, contact:
Camp Arrowhead
1055 Worcester Road
Natick , MA 01760
Phone: (Summer Camp) (508) 651-7333; (Year around camp) (508) 647-6530
info@camparrowhead.us
http://www.camparrowhead.us/

Children’s Specialized Hospital Camps
Children's Specialized Hospital , Mountainside, NJ offers overnight and day camps for children with special healthcare needs, including a weeklong overnight session at Camp Skycrest in the Pocono Mountains near Hawley , PA. Sessions include: June 26-July 2 and July 3-July 9; day camps in Westfield , NJ run August 1-5 and August 8-12 and in Toms River, NJ, August 15-19.

Owned and operated by the Phillipsburg/Easton YMCA and designed for campers age 8-12, Camp Skycrest is situated on 115 hilltop acres near Lake Wallenpaupack . A certified recreational therapist from Children's Specialized Hospital supervises camp staffers and college students pursuing degrees and careers in special needs education. Facilities include cabins, pools, nature trails, a pond, athletic fields, cafeteria, craft centers, go-cart track and a recreational hall.

Skycrest campers enjoy crafts, campfires, special events, fishing, swimming, canoeing and cooperative sports. Transportation to the camp is available at a nominal fee. The cost for camp is $890 per week. Financial assistance is available.

Campers must be able to follow directions and safety rules with the supervision of camp coordinators and must be able to shower, toilet, eat and dress with minimal supervision.   For campers requiring mobility assistance due to the hilly terrain of the campus, a golf cart is available on which campers must be able to safely sit and balance.

The Westfield , NJ day camps, Camp Sunshine and Summer Fun Camp, operate in collaboration with the Westfield YMCA. nbsp; Camp Sunshine is for children ages 5-6; Summer Fun Camp is for children ages 7-11. Campers participate in arts and crafts, swim lessons, theme weeks, games, sports, recreational swim and field trips. To be eligible for the camp children must be able to follow directions and safety rules under proper supervision.   The cost for camp is $300 per week and financial assistance is available.

The Toms River day camp, Pals Paradise, is a weeklong session for which children with physical or developmental disabilities can register a sibling or friend to accompany them. Activities include arts and crafts, cooperative sports, music, social games and special activities. The session is held at the Christ Episcopal Church in Toms River . Campers are ages 5-13. The cost per week is $150 per child and financial assistance is available.

Children’s Specialized Hospital also sponsors Camp Chatterbox , an intensive therapy camp for children, ages 5–16 who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices, and a training program for their parents. The camp gives children an opportunity to interact with other children using AAC systems while learning to use their devices in functional activities. In addition, Camp Chatterbox provides opportunities for professionals working in the field to gain hands-on experience working with children using AAC devices.

For more information, contact:
Children's Specialized Hospital
150 New Providence Road
Mountainside , NJ 07092
Phone: (908) 301-5461; 1-888-244-5373, ext. 5484 (toll free)
Fax: (908) 301-5509
http://www.childrens-specialized.org/programs/camp.php3

Ramapo for Children
Founded in 1922 and located on 250 acres in New York State ’s Hudson Valley region, Ramapo for Children is a nationally recognized, non-profit organization that annually serves over 1,700 special needs and at-risk children from early childhood through adolescence. The organization operates Camp Ramapo , which serves children with a range of emotional and learning problems in a natural, outdoor environment.

Camp Ramapo ’s three summer programs include:

Early Adventure , which gives fragile and disadvantaged young children ages 4-6 a therapeutic and educational summer camp experience that prepares them to enter school with improved readiness and social skills.

Summer Adventure , which annually serves more than 600 special needs children ages 7-14 in an outdoor environment. Activities include: high and low ropes courses; hiking, orienteering and backpacking trips; swimming; canoeing and kayaking; and arts and crafts. Facilities include a reading center, computers, miniature golf course, and a science and nature discovery center. Summer Adventure campers live in cabins with an average of six peers.

Teen Leadership , which offers teenagers ages 14- 16 a variety of activities and learning opportunities designed to build relationships and promote discipline, self-reflection, a willing attitude, and concern for others. Teen Leaders are expected to commit to a set of community values and individual principles that are reinforced through small group seminars, activities, community service projects and consistent, ongoing contact with a Ramapo mentor.

For additional information, contact:
Ramapo for Children 
P.O. Box 266, Rt. 52 / Salisbury Turnpike 
Rhinebeck, NY  12572
Tel:  (845) 876-8403
Fax: (845) 876-8414
Email: office@ramapoforchildren.org
http://www.ramapoforchildren.org/html/home.htm

High Esteem’s Camp Goodwill (HECG)
Established in 1996, HECG provides adaptive residential camping and year round programs for children as well as young adults with physical disabilities and special needs in central New York State . HECG is located near Syracuse in the Chittenango Falls Valley in Chittenango , New York . The camp’s camper/staff ratio is 3:1 to 1:1. No session exceeds 30 campers.

HECG aims include: making recreational activities accessible and available to handicapped and special needs children and young adults; developing and restoring campers' self-esteem, confidence and self worth; helping children and young adults with special needs to develop or enhance coping skills and self-advocacy skills and other necessary life skills in a non-threatening, interactive, recreational environment.

For more information, contact:
High Esteem’s Camp Goodwill
P.O. Box 450
Chittenango , NY 13037
Phone: (315) 655-9735
Fax: (315) 655-2441
http://www.highesteem.homestead.com/

Camp Sunshine
Operating year-round, Camp Sunshine supports children with life threatening illnesses and their families.  The camp’s mission is to address the impact of a life threatening illness on every member of the immediate family—the ill child, the parents and the siblings.  Every week, 40 families can participate in a week-long camp experience at no expense to them. Since its inception in 2001, Camp Sunshine has provided a haven for over 16,000 individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Families with a child diagnosed with diseases such as cancer, kidney disease, lupus, diabetes, solid organ transplants, and other life threatening illnesses attend one of the week-long camps.  The camps’ focus is on alleviating the strain that a life threatening illness takes not only on the sick child but also on other family members.  Free services include accommodations and meals, onsite medical services, counseling services and recreational facilities.  While camp is in session, each family stays in its own family suite.  Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served each day.  

Volunteers, except for those who live nearby, also reside on the property.  Camp Sunshine is staffed almost entirely by volunteers, many of who return year after year. 

An on-site physician provides 24-hour medical support throughout the session.  In addition, a hospital with full-time emergency room physicians and pediatricians is only 25 minutes from the camp. 

For more information, contact:
Camp Sunshine
35 Acadia Road
Casco , Maine 04015
Phone: (207) 655-3800
Fax: (207) 655-3825
http://www.campsunshine.org/pages/home.html

Foundation for Dreams (Dream Oaks Camp)
Dream Oaks Camp, operated by Foundation for Dreams, provides residential, day and weekend camp programs for children with physical and developmental disabilities and chronic serious illnesses.

Residential camp programs begin on Monday at 8:30 a.m. and end on Friday at 3:30 p.m. each week during the summer. Campers stay for four nights. Weekend camp programs run Friday evening through Sunday morning during the school year. Campers stay for two nights. Summer day camp sessions run daily from 8:30 a.m. through 3:30 p.m. daily Monday through Friday.

Recreational and educational activities include: arts and crafts, boat rides, campfires, canoeing, dancing, horseback riding, music and songs, nature programs, sports and games, swimming, fishing and talent shows.

For further information, contact:
Foundation for Dreams, Inc.
2620 Manatee Avenue West , Suite D
Bradenton , FL 34205
Phone: (941) 748-8809
Fax: (941) 746-7889
Email: Info@foundationfordreams.org
http://www.foundationfordreams.org/default.asp

Tourette Syndrome Camp USA (TSCO)
Founded in 1994, Tourette Syndrome Camp USA a residential program designed by the Tourette Syndrome Camp Organization (TSCO) for boys and girls ages 8-16 whose primary diagnosis is Tourette Syndrome and, to a lesser degree, Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD).

Camp sessions are held at YMCA Camp Duncan located 30 miles north of Chicago . The camp is home to other children with special needs, including burn victims and diabetics. The facility features an Olympic-size indoor swimming pool and a semi-private lake.

The Tourette camp is operated concurrently with a traditional camp week. While there are separate cabins for the Tourette campers, all programming is done with the rest of the camp. A nurse manages medication and medical issues for all Tourette Camp USA campers.

The Tourette program is not a therapeutic camp and thus is unable to accept campers whose needs are beyond the scope of its design. Campers must manage daily living skills such as dressing and self-hygiene as well as function in a group setting. While the program is modified to meet the needs of most children whose primary diagnosis is TS, camp administrators have learned that not every child with TS is capable of benefiting from its program.

In addition to providing in-service training for the Camp Duncan staff, TSCO augments the Tourette camps with volunteer counselors who either have TS/OCD/ADD or have experience in dealing with the disorders.

The 2005 summer camp program is in session June 26- July 2, 2005 . The cost is $425 per camper. Financial aid is available.

For further information, contact:
Tourette Syndrome Camp Organization (TSCO)
6933 North Kedzie #816
Chicago , IL 60645
Phone: (773) 645 7536
http://tourettecamp.com/

The Bradford Woods camps are residential camp facilities and programs for children with disabilities, many of whom are sponsored by Riley Children’s Foundation. One such program is the week long Camp Kan Du, which is designed for children whose cognitive level is assessed at 0-48 months. Camp About Face, sponsored by the Craniofacial Clinic and Riley Children’s Foundation, is a weeklong camp for children with craniofacial anomalies. Camp About Face is attended by youth from all over the nation. The camps offer both single-day and overnight programs and events for children with special health care needs and their families.

Other Bradford Woods camps include:

Camp Riley and Venture Camps , which are sponsored by Riley Children’s Foundation. Camp Riley serves youth ages 8-18 with a variety of physical disabilities. All camps are overnight and sessions last either one week (6 days) or two weeks (13 days). Camp Riley sessions are available throughout the summer, each with a different focus and programmed with the needs of campers in mind. Financial assistance is available. Phone: (317) 634-4474.      http://www.rileykids.org

Camp Hi-Lite , for children and young adults ages 8-22 with Down’s Syndrome. One session is available. For more information, or to request an application, please contact Kathy Lowe at (317) 274-4264 or klowe@iupui.edu.

Camp About Face , sponsored by the Craniofacial Clinic at Riley Hospital for Children, serves children and youth, ages 8-18, with craniofacial anomalies. One session is available. For more information, or to request an application, please contact Trish Severns or Carol Ritter at (317) 274-2489 or pseverns@iupui.edu.

Camp Independence serves children and youth ages 8-18 with Sickle Cell Disease. This camp is also open to siblings of children with Sickle Cell.  One session is available. For more information, or to request an application, please contact Andy Harner at (317) 274-0115 or aharner@iupui.edu or Rhonda Cantrell at (317) 541-2105 or rcantrel@hhcorp.org.

For more information about these camps, contact:
Bradford Woods Camps
Indiana University 's Outdoor Center
5040 State Road 67 North
Martinsville , Indiana 46151
Phone: (765) 342-2915; (765) 349-5117 (TTY)
Fax:     (765) 349-1086
E-Mail: bradwood@indiana.edu
http://www.bradwoods.org

Camp Courageous of Iowa
Founded in 1972, Camp Courageous of Iowa is a year-round respite and recreational facility for individuals of all ages with disabilities. The camp’s 80 acres contain 14 buildings and annually serves about 5,000 people. The camp’s operation is funded only by donations and has never had formal sponsorship or paid fundraisers.

Fall, winter, and spring camp sessions vary from one to five days. Summer sessions run Sunday through Friday. Respite care weekends are available a minimum of once a month, Friday through Sunday.

For further information, contact:
Camp Courageous Iowa
12007 190th Street
P.O. Box 418
Monticello , IA 52310-0418
Phone: (319) 465-5916
Fax: (319) 465-5919
Contact: Charlie Becker, Executive Director
cbecker@campcourageous.org
info@campcourageous.org
http://www.campcourageous.org

Children’s Association for Maximum Potential ( Camp CAMP )
Located in the Texas Hill Country near the Guadalupe River , Camp CAMP provides overnight camping experiences to children with special needs who are ineligible for other camps due to the severity of their condition, and their siblings. Children with tracheostomies, ventilator support, gastrostomies, central catheters, peritoneal dialysis and overnight drip infusions are eligible to attend. Many campers have no verbal, communication or self-help skills. Others require multiple medications around the clock. Some campers have milder disabilities.

Camp CAMP was established in 1979 to provide recreational, rehabilitative, educational, and respite services for children with developmental disabilities and their families.

Medical support is central to CAMP's programs. This support ensures that every all camper, regardless of the severity of their disability and need for medical support, can participate in all camp programs.

For more information, contact:

Children’s Association for Maximum Potential (CAMP)
P.O. Box 27086
San Antonio , TX 78227
Phone: (210) 292-3566
Fax: (210) 292-3576
Email: campmail
http://www.serve.com/campcamp/

The June Rusche Hamrah Camp for All (CFA)
Located between Houston and Austin, in Washington County , TX , Camp for All is a host facility that annually provides weeklong camps, weekend retreats and day programs for more than 70 special needs and mission-related organizations.

The 206-acre CFA site features more than 100,000 square feet of facilities, two lakes, nature trails, wooded areas and cleared areas for activities such as horseback riding, archery, and field sports. Other activities include canoeing, fishing, arts and crafts, and a nature program. The camp is fully accessible, designed to foster campers' independence and features wide, gently sloping concrete walkways linking facilities and maximizing mobility for campers in wheelchairs.

The camp's main lodge includes a dining hall, health center, and gathering hall. The kitchen and dining hall can serve cafeteria-style meals to approximately 300 people. The health center has treatment rooms, semi-private bedrooms for volunteer medical staff, an education den and medical support areas. CFA's full-time, on site staff, includes a camp director, program director and staff members who manage programs.

For further information, contact:
Camp for All
6301 Rehburg Rd.
Burton , Texas 77835
Phone: (979) 289-3752
Fax: (979) 289.5046
Contact: Janet Johnson, Camp Director
jjohnson@campforall.org
Email: campsite@campforall.org
http://www.campforall.org

The Quest Day Camp at Huntington Beach , CA
Designed for campers ages 6-14 who have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), learning disabilities, adjustment disorders, and anxiety or depression, Quest’s therapeutic program combines behavioral methods, group therapy, recreational activities and instructional athletics to assist campers in developing new skills and eliminating actions that create difficulties for them.

The Quest strategy presumes that children have the capacity to translate their potential abilities into a positive life experience. Through the initial screening, parent input, and observation in the group setting, Quest professional staffers develop a treatment plan that identifies the nature of a child's frustrations and failures. These problems are identified as specific behavioral goals. Through the milieu treatment program and group therapy, campers find continued success, behavior improvement and improved self-esteem.

The 2005 camp session is July 11-August 5.

For additional information, contact:
The Quest Day Camp at Huntington Beach , CA
Phone: (714) 841-5534; (877)-273-2913 (toll free)
http://www.netwest2.com/quest/