Getting Ready for Camp: Planning and Preparing Your Child for a Camp Experience Presentation by Susanna Miller Community Support Specialist December 5, 2013

Why send your child to camp? According to the American Camp Association: Camp improves the lives of children, youth, and families! Camp makes children healthy! Camp enables children to grow to be caring, contributing, successful members of society.

Why send your child to camp? Independence Choices & Decision-Making Self Care Social Skills Relationships & Friendships Leadership

Behaviors Away from Home Do you know if you child has challenging behaviors outside of home and school? Have you sent your child away from home other than school? Has your child had any overnight experiences outside of the home?

Things to Consider Authority Figure Interactions Peer Interactions Do they respect authority figures? Do they trust authority figures? Peer Interactions How hard is it for them to interact with their peers? Do they play cooperative games?

American Camp Association “Find a Camp” How to Choose a Camp ACA or some other accreditation Opinions of parents and other campers American Camp Association “Find a Camp” http://find.acacamps.org

Things to Consider Supervision by Staff Better than “good staff” Highly structured Highly consistent Highly patient Staff Ratio Are they appropriate for issues that might arise Support Staff Do counselors have the support they need if situations arise that they aren’t prepared for?

Things to Consider Routines Does the program run in a way that is conducive to a camper finding a routine? Are activities at the same time everyday? Do campers choose elective periods while they are at camp? Are schedules made for campers before or after their arrival? How structured are mornings and nights?

Things to Consider Medications How many medications is the camper on? Is the medical staff prepared for a child on medications? Is the programming conducive to the camper being able to get medications multiple times a day?

Tradition vs. Specialized How much support does your child need? Does your child need specialized interventions? Is your child in an inclusive environment in a school setting? Is your child in an inclusive environmnet in a community setting?

Preparing Your Child Overnight trips to family members’ homes Overnight trips to friends’ homes Involvement in community recreation and leisure activities Involvement in youth programs at local religious establishments

Preparing Yourself Overnight trips Find parents who are or have been in similar situations Find something fun for yourself to do while child is away

Preparing the Camp FULLY DISCLOSE information about your child to the camp director Why do you want your child to come to camp? Has your child been to camp before? What was their experience like? What is your child’s attitude about going to camp? What is the child’s exact diagnosis?

Preparing the Camp What are strategies that work and do not work with the child? Is the child physically or verbally aggressive? If so, what were the situations surrounding these incidents? Will those situations be present at camp? Is the camp prepared for that? Connect camp director to teacher, counselor, psychologist, etc.

Community Support Specialist Contact Information Susanna Miller Community Support Specialist smiller65@gsu.edu www.cld-gsu.org