the summertime blues

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Every year I hope I can sign my son up for something fun for summer break, and every year I fail. He's doing so much better, I really had hopes for this summer. Saw an animation class -- he would *love* that, what could be more perfect? Then see in the description, "children work together in small cooperative groups." Oh swell. That's something he can still only do carefully supervised.

There's a gym class--he would like that too, but it's full day for kids his age and I don't think he could take a full day.

There's so many things he's interested in, and it seems so impossible to make them happen. I feel so useless.

Hi Willaful, is there anyway that you can talk to the people who run the programs and explain the situation? Maybe some accomodations can be made? For instance, maybe he could just attend a part day at the gym. Or maybe he could just observe the animation class until he felt comfortable joining in? I don't know if any of these will work, but maybe you could try.

Don't beat yourself up about this. You are doing the best that you can.

Hi Willaful, I would suggest checking out your local children's museum or science museum for weekly daycamps, assuming you live in a city that has those, and assuming your son would enjoy those.

Speak with the childrens programming coordinators. You may be surprised to find that many museums are accustomed to aspie/autie kids, and may even have staff trained in working with ASD kids (ours does). My son LOVES going to the daycamps at our museum, but struggles in most other generic daycamps as they are neither educated nor equipped to manage the extra challenges of ASD children.

One other tip, if you do put him into a full day camp, you could consider dropping by at lunchtime for a sensory break. My husband works near the museum and went every day at 'half time' to give joint compressions, etc. We also sent our son every day with his chewlery, lots of gum and chewy candies, and manipulatives. We also sent a copy of a brochure I drafted to help explain Aspergers behaviour to caregivers. If you think it may be of use to you, it's posted on my blog.

Good luck

It's always worth asking about it. My AS son joined cub scout not too long ago. The leaders are very experienced and said they can handle "different" kids. They just need to pay a bit more attention and give out instructions (and reminders) more clearly. I found out my son wasn't the only autistic kid there, they already had a boy there. They just had a two day camping trip and everyone had a great time.

I signed up my daughter last summer for swimming lessons and she really balked at it at first. Turned out she didn't feel comfy with a male teacher (he didn't score high on the encouraging scale and wanted her to go at his pace, not vice versa), but when I spoke to them, they switched her to a female instructor and she actually did very well. It was a group class, but it wasn't collaborative, which I think had a lot to do with her being ok with it. We're going to try it again this summer; I'd really like her to know at least some basic swimming skills

I put my son in the summer day camps in my area. I just explain about him and tell them if things get out of hand they can call. Sometimes they have camps that sort of center around your childs interests. Also you might want to consider martial arts. I know in this area all the martial arts instructors are open to taking kids with special needs. You can also check with your city or states Autism Society of America....(that is if you live in the US) usually you can find your chapter on the web site.

I have always sent my son to day camps, and he has always done well. The key has been that he needs to know what to expect, and have a very specific curriculum. He does not like "play" camps. I do always put in on the forms that he is AS, and that they need to be careful with transitions and sticking to expectations. Never been a problem.

Last year we sent him to a computer camp with options for GameMaker, animation, etc. That class was probably 50% AS kids. Yes, they sometimes collaborated, but it wasn't required, the teacher student ratio was really high, and the day was about as quiet as could be imagined, with kids staring at their own computer screens all day. My son LOVED it. It's only too bad it costs about 4 times as much as any other camp.

Other favorites have been science camps, Lego camps, Shakespeare acting camp, and all things Boy Scout.

Talk to the directors of camps you think might be interesting for your child. You could be pleasantly surprised, and discover that they are totally prepared to handle an AS child.

We have done many of the things suggested above, but this year we opted out of day camp entirely and bought a family membership to the local museum/science gallery instead. We're going to make our own museum day camp going at our own pace.

We are also going to work on stop motion animation together as our summer project.

Do you have the microsoft software for stop motion animation alice? I believe it's a free download, my husband has that on his list of projects to do with my son as well.

I don't know if it's just that we worry too much or if my son is genuinely more difficult than other people's AS kids. He does have ADHD too and impulse control is a big issue. He has a one-on-one aide and has still had to be sent home from school on several occasions.

But I think we're going to take the risk and sign him up for the animation class, because it would be something he would enjoy so much.

Cool, I'll show that to my husband. Also just noticed you are a fellow Canuck

Maybe if it is something he is really interested in, it will be worth it to him to focus and pay attention. I know, we have to not be afraid to try. I signed my son up for Vacation Bible School, and have no idea how he will do. I volunteered to help out so that I can be there to keep my eye on him. So we shall see......

My husband just talked to the director of the animation class, and he says there's a video on their website that shows the whole process of how the kids work, so we're going to show it to my son and talk to him about how comfortable we would feel working with other kids (taking turns, sometimes having to use their ideas instead of yours, etc.) and take it from there.

Also need to look into the idea someone mentioned above of seeing whether the gym program can make an exception and let him go for a half day. He is so looking forward to free time this summer, I wouldn't have the heart to send him for a full day even if I thought he was up to it.

We called the gym and apparently the thing on the website about half days only for younger kids is wrong! They're also open by the day, which is awesome -- we can sign him up for a day or two and see how it goes instead of making a big monetary commitment that might not work out.

I'm still freaking out a bit because this will be the first year with no summer school at all. The whole summer to fill! It's scary for me, because I really need my own alone time/down time. My husband is really good about taking my son out so I can relax, but he has to work.