Using Systems

[collissimon]

What systems do you use with your campers? (i.e. how do you get the kids to do stuff throughout the day)

How regimented/relaxed is your camp?

[camper]

we don't really have a lot of "systems" except for group lineups before every activity and waiting until every single kid is quiet before we start speaking. we're very regimented though...we have an exact schedule that we stick to every day and each morning the groupheads have a meeting where my mom will inform them of any changes that might be occuring that day.

[Dave]

Are you talking specifically about special needs kids? If so, for autistic kids in our camp their advocates make up a schedule for them every day of pictures of each activity so they can visually see what they're going to be doing.

[camper]

oh lol i didn't see that this was for special needs camps people...haha oh well our kids have special needs just of a different kind.

[collissimon]

It can be for special needs or mainstream camps, but I think there is perhaps more of a demand for strong systems with special needs camps.

What I mean by systems is a 'fun' way of doing things, or a certain way of doing things to introduce the kids into the routine.

For example, you can do line ups, or have little routines for clean up to make them go smoother.

[CAMPFRIEND]

For our speical need campers I have found it works best if each day you make sure they now what is going on. If you are going to have any big changes the next day you need to get them ready for them in advance. It sees to work well for all of our campers!
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SR500 (http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Yamaha_SR500)

[Dave]

It can be for special needs or mainstream camps, but I think there is perhaps more of a demand for strong systems with special needs camps.

What I mean by systems is a 'fun' way of doing things, or a certain way of doing things to introduce the kids into the routine.

For example, you can do line ups, or have little routines for clean up to make them go smoother.
I understand now. And with the special needs kids at our camp, everything is about routine. Very true.

[Skater Bubbles]

Ya same here-special needs kids, Lots of routine!!

[collissimon]

Def. agree Skater Bubbles! The only time we break the routine is for special occassions: Parents Day, Track and Field Day, or the weather which the kids really hate!

We do break with some of the periods though, when we organise bunk rewards, because we have individual rewards for good behaviour, and bunk rewards for good group behaviour: they can be so much fun!

[audur]

At my winter job (afterschool program for kids with various mental disabilities - they range in age from 6-16 although I mostly work with the younger ones), routine is the most important thing - establishing it early on is very important. We rarely break it - the kids do enjoy doing something different occasionally, but many of them can't handle the excitement very well.

We use a lot of visual stuff to help us out - for example, every place in our building has a drawing of whatever the area is used for, and we have words and drawings plastered all over the place. The shelves we keep plastic animals in have the words "plastic animals" written on them. The shelves we keep puzzles and board games on have a drawing of those things on them. The art room has the words "art room" in big, bold letters on the door, and a big photo of art materials.

We use picture communication symbols (boardmaker) for a lot of things - including a visual list of everything we're doing during the day (a typical list would be "arrive - free play/homework - bathroom - snack - wash hands - Your Choice - clean up - bathroom - get dressed - school bus - go home"). The list hangs in a very obvious place, so the kids all notice it when they arrive. We also use boardmaker for Your Choice - which is when we offer various activities (art, board games, music, play outside, woodwork, baking...). The kids get to go up, one at a time, and pick an activity of their choice, provided it's not full. They take a small picture, find the area where the the activity takes place and put the picture on a small plastic thing there (yay, velcro!).

Another thing we do, is we give each day a different colour, and post it on our boardmaker list. For examples, Fridays are "white days". Many of the kids have a hard time remembering that Friday is the last day before the weekend, and it's easier for them to remember that white days are the last day. They also know that "white day" means that instead of Your Choice, we watch a video. Similarly, "yellow day" means everyone goes out to play, and so on. So we can do different things on different coloured days, without freaking the kids out too much ;)

Basically, it's just all about routine.

[collissimon]

That's ace audur! Do you use any hand symbols? We use them because sometimes it's easier for some kids (esp. autistic) to understand a symbol rather than a verbal command, which can be confused with body language etc.

[audur]

Yeah, we use hand symbols, too. We actually have a thing in Iceland called "tákn með tali", or "signs with language"... it's a pretty well developed hand-symbol system that's really effective for lots of kids, not only kids who have disabilities. I'm not as good with the symbols as I'd like (I know the basics... mom, dad, home, school, play, bathroom, good, bad, eat, cake (haha - a very important word to know!), stop... and some random words like fish, boat, tomorrow, santa claus, movie...), but I'm learning.

[CAMPFRIEND]

I just wanted to say it great to see how many people work with speical needs campers. I know there are so many camp that will turn campers away. Great work to all of you. Keep it up.

[collissimon]

Thanks campfriend!

audur,

We have that too, it's called 'Makaton' and is a simplified sign language. It's based on British Sign Language, but some signs are different: I remember when a pop singer was doing a ballad on TV and was signing too. The words were something like 'I'll be your angel now', but in Makaton it was 'I'll be your toilet now'.. made me chuckle!

The website for Makaton is: www.makaton.org

[audur]

Yeah, ours is partly based on Icelandic sign language... I learned sign language way before I started learning TMT, though, so it was a little confusing for me to start using that. http://tmt.is/forsida.htm <---- this is the website for TMT... it's insanely cluttered and hard to navigate, but the fact that they have pretty much every sign on the website is nice when I'm trying to remember a certain word...

[collissimon]

That's really cool! Makaton looks similar, though I was a bit lost because I don't speak Icelandic!! :D

[prettysocks]

My camp is all special-needs (though some aren't kids with mental disabilities - able bodied kids with wheels), and we have a bit of routine. Fr example, flagpole, breakfast, juice break, lunch, juice break, dinner, evening program, and campfire and snack happen everyday, and the kids are aware of this.

We don't, however, do line ups or anything.

We have the days of the week on the wall, and pictures of each activities to place under the different periods of the day.. but it's a useless system and we didn't end up using it. We ended up giving each kid a sticker each day with their programs for the day written on it.

Ta da!