Earlier this summer, K.I.D.S. Therapy Associates, Inc. and Maranatha Chapel held their 2nd annual “Kid’s Games” Sports Camp.  The week-long camp at Maranatha Christian Schools welcomed hundreds of children to participate in a variety of sports such as soccer, basketball, baseball, volleyball, karate, flag-football, archery, fishing, orienteering, golf, frisbee, running, and more.

Thanks to funding provided by a NFAR community grant, K.I.D.S. Therapy expanded their inclusion to forty campers with a variety of special needs, including autism. All campers were fully included in sports teams and athletic events with support from a one-on-one trained buddy throughout the week.

Prior to the camp, therapists from K.I.D.S. Therapy designed individual support plans for each child and hosted meetings to familiarize and instruct the volunteer buddies in how to best support their camper. Additionally, K.I.D.S. Therapy designed a break area where campers with special needs could go when feeling overwhelmed, or simply needing a break from the large group activities. This break area provided alternative games and activities as well as a variety of visual supports to assist all levels. While this area was called “the break zone”, it was designed as a more sheltered area within the larger fully included camp setting to provide teachable moments for children to generalize their skills related to social language, sensory-emotional regulation, as well as gross and fine motor skills.

Throughout the camp, children were able to develop a variety of functional skills that they could continue to use, even after the week was over. Campers with special needs were challenged and encouraged with support to achieve new skills in many areas, including, social pragmatic skills, sports and athletic skills, and self-regulatory skills. The camp was a safe and supported environment for kids to generalize the skills they practice all year long in more protected therapeutic settings.

Our therapists really enjoyed watching the campers form friendships and experience many sports first hand,” noted Betsy Slavik, M.A. of K.I.D.S. Therapy. “The camp was an example of a wonderfully supportive environment where children with special needs taught the typically developing peers about what they needed, and the typically developing peers put it into action.”

K.I.D.S. Therapy reports that many typically developing peers reached out with love, compassion, encouragement and support. As a result, the campers with special needs felt accepted and respected. “If you walked around the camp area, and witnessed snack time, it was difficult to tell who had special needs,” added Slavik. “Parents of our campers shared that the dinner time conversation was really special, listening to each child share about their day at camp.”

To judge the success of the camp, the volunteer buddies and parents of each special camper were asked to fill out a survey upon completion of the camp. The volunteer buddies completed a survey that rated their camper’s improvement of skills in a variety of areas including self-regulation, use of “Expected behaviors,” and communication skills. They used a rating scale of one to five, in which a rating of one meant “no improvement” and five meant “significant improvement.” Volunteer buddies gave a rating of three or higher in over 80 percent of the opportunities, while parents reported a rating of four or higher in 80 percent of opportunities. Many parents also commented about how much they appreciated that for the first time, their child was able to join their typical siblings in a camp environment.

Due to the enormous success of this camp, the team at K.I.D.S. Therapy Associates, Inc. has already begun to make plans to expand this camp and also aspire to develop a model that will extend support for children with special needs to attend a variety of summer camps throughout the greater San Diego community.

Additional Information

Community Outreach and Training Program

In December, NFAR awarded Include Autism (LINK TO includeautism.org) with grant funding for a project entitled “Autism Inclusion Training for Community Businesses and Organizations.” Include Autism believes that by working together we can help those with autism become active, involved members of our community and we agree. This innovative program will provide businesses, organizations, and community leaders with practical and specialized training on how to more effectively include individuals with autism in their daily operations and offerings.

Include Autism, formerly known as Community Coaching Center, serves as the umbrella company for its social behavior program as well as community outreach and new autism inclusion training programs. Include Autism continues to operate its Community Coaching Center, a community-based, behavior development and inclusion program for kids and teens diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Learn more

Watch the Include Autism Thank You Video.

Program currently accepting Families 

A 2013 NFAR Community Project Grant recipient Star Specialties, a program of Vista Hill,  is currently accepting enrollment in their Family Intensive Training (FIT) Program. FIT is a 22-week social skills/ behavioral treatment program for children with high functioning autism or Asperger’s Syndrome (between 5 – 10 years old) and their families. NFAR’s grant is helping to provide scholarship funding for families, as well as provide for the Spanish translation and formatting of the FIT Parent Handbook.

Enrolled families meet once a week for two hours where they work on social skills training and regulation of challenging behaviors. Each parent/child team is assigned a behavior coach. FIT Program training occurs in a group environment, allowing children to work on new social skills with peers, and families to learn from one another.

FIT training groups are currently operating in several locations and interested families can contact STAR Specialties for more information, call (858) 514-5170, or visit www.starspecialties.org.

Learn more