Special needs camps

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• Camps that specialize in special needs support

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Camps dedicated to specific concerns:

Not all of these camps fall under the same umbrella. Here's a brief overview of some more specialized camps:

• Some special needs camps focus on children with diseases, such as cancer. Here, kids find affinity with fellow campers. In an environment where they fit in and where everything is tailored to their needs, they can forget some of the things they are going through. Parents who may be under great stress in this time of terrible hardship get some reprieve from caregiving, also. Similarly, diabetes summer camps facilitate friendships with and learning from others with the same daily challenges. While many campers return year after year, children who have been newly diagnosed benefit especially. It can be an important part of learning to live with this disease. 
• Camps for children with physical disabilities also facilitate the feeling of fitting in for the participants. Among other services and features, these camps will have uniquely accessible buildings and sleeping quarters, and all programs will be tailored to the unique consideration required for these kids.
• Still other camps offer special needs programs specifically geared toward children with learning disabilities such as autism. Camps and programs like these will support kids who are learning disabled and will encourage a community where all are accepted and calued equally.  

In a select camp for special needs, kids can grow in new ways and view themselves differently. As one young camper puts it, "I feel like a regular kid. All the other kids understand what it is like to have troubles."

Special needs camps listed here offer trained staff and an environment created specifically for the needs of your child. Not only do the camps give them a safe environment, they can also challenge your child to grow in new and unique ways so that he or she may gain just a little more independence.

Some camps listed above  camps that offer programs where your special needs child can be integrated with other children, whether those children are not disabled in any way or face challenges different from those of your child, whether those are physical, learning or emotional. Sending your child to a special needs camp will in all likelihood be a very positive growth experience for all involved.

Choosing between day and overnight special needs camps

Parents with a special needs child may have some reservations about sending their child away. However, a special needs overnight summer camp gives kids a unique opportunity to grow and learn. Some more benefits to consider:

• Staff in camps for disabled kids and teens will be uniquely well-qualified to facilitate independence for your child. Through the addition of volunteers, camps are able to offer discrete attention to every child. In one Ontario special needs camp, for example, staff and volunteers outnumber the kids and teens. Camp counselors are often older (than 20, that is) and they will undergo intensive training in order to offer the best care.  For kids away from parents for the first time, the environment here teaches them that it can be okay to be away from parents.
• Focus on fun. Kids' camp is a light hearted environment where kids who may be disabled or otherwise handicapped take part in the fun life that is unique to summer camp.
• You're facilitating leadership development. Camp creates a completely unique community of people who care, including volunteers, counselors and all others. In case after case, we know that everyone at these camps takes away experiences that build character, and memories that nurture their personal development well into adulthood. 

In Our Kids Go to Camp 2010, we profiled ways in which Camp Quality, Camp Kirk and Glenholme Summer Camp went out of their way to "be there" at their camps for kids with special needs.