Special Needs Camps

On this blog, I usually write about legal issues related to service animals, special education, student rights, or disability discrimination. Once in a while, though, it’s always nice to get away and not need to think about issues associated with school, employment, or independent living. Kids, especially, need to have fun, a place to get away from the stresses of life, and meet new friends they can relate to and share interests with.

Whether it’s during the day for a week or two, or overnight for several weeks, summer camp can boost a disabled child’s confidence and self-esteem and help form life-long friendships. In the past two decades, there has been an explosion of summer camps for children with disabilities. The number of special needs camp is astounding. One website lists over 70 camps for those with Asperger’s, over 100 camps for those with developmental disabilities, and over 110 camps for those with learning disabilities and ADD/ADHD. There are special needs camps for children who are amputees, as well as children with autism, burns, cerebral palsy, deafness, dyslexia, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, muscular dystrophy, and visual impairments, among others.

These websites contain extensive listings of special needs camps across the country: Camp Resource, Family Village, Kids Camp, My Summer Camps, and Very Special Camps.com.

There are “day camps” and “sleep-away camps.” (There are also “travel camps,” such as Frontier Travel Camp, where children with disabilities can join their peers in traveling to another country.) Some camps caters to children of various disabilities, other camps cater only to children with specific disabilities. Some camps are expensive, others are not. Some camps may offer scholarships for families who qualify.

Those who are not financially able to send their child to a special needs camp may want to research local organizations such as 4-H. (Rutgers University in New Jersey published a nice article encouraging special needs youth to get involved in 4-H clubs.) Some local YMCA clubs may also have day activities for children with disabilities throughout the summer.

There are several helpful articles that explain how to best choose the special needs camp for your child, including Choosing Among Special-Needs Camp: Making Summer Special! and Finding a Camp for your Child with Special Needs. If your child has specific needs, surf to your favorite disability organization website or disability magazine to see if any summer camp review articles have been published. For example, ADDitude, a magazine for children with learning disabilities and ADD, published The Best Camps for ADHD Children.

Summer camp slots often fill up quickly, so it’s never too early to research summer camps. While you’re thinking about whether you want to send your special needs children to camp, or which camp to send your child to, have a look at this wonderful video of special needs children enjoying themselves and learning teamwork at a camp:

© 2010, Matthew Stoloff. All rights reserved.

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