If you are choosing to sign your child up for a summer camp- whether it’s a daytime camp or an overnight camp- you may have questions about how to best prepare your child for the experience.
Children diagnosed with ADHD, Autism, and/or anxiety benefit from being prepared for new experiences and processing concerns before attending camp. To do this, your child can create a pros and cons list with you or their therapist to help pinpoint things they are excited about and things they may be worried about. Together, you can walk through solutions to potential concerns with your child.
If your child has concerns about being away from home:
Walk them through the time they will be away at camp using daily schedules.
Create routine and expectations around when to be ready for camp and what will happen after camp.
If a child is attending an overnight camp, you can create a time chain using paper and tape to link the number of days a child will be away from home. Each day, the child can rip a chain link off to visually see how much closer they are to being home.
If your child has social concerns around making friends or fitting in:
Explore topics they can discuss with other children.
Many card and board games allow children to work through social situations with a parent or therapist to move social skills as well.
Highlight with your child the strengths they have during social situations to build confidence.
Your child may be curious about how to get help or who they can approach at camp should they have a question.
Depending on the camp, you can set up a short meeting with a camp director or counselor to introduce your child and share that they are a good point of contact.
Send your child to camp with plenty of contact information. Even if your child’s camp has phone numbers on file, sending a physical copy of the information to reach their family can provide additional comfort.
Specifically for overnight camps:
Children may be concerned about not being able to stay overnight and complete camp. Let your child come to you with this concern, rather than introducing the idea.
If your child does have this concern, make a game plan for what to do if they need to come home. The plan can include ways to problem-solve issues at hand, get connected to a counselor to contact family and organize themselves to come home.
Oftentimes children will be able to overcome concerns once they are actually at camp, but having the conversation on what to do should they need to come home can provide relief before attending camp.
Any other concerns your child may have should come up during the pros and cons list-making process so you can assist your child with their specific worries. Remember, camp is an incredible way to give your child a way to build social skills, explore their interests, and build confidence. Working through a child’s concerns is well worth it to give them this awesome experience over the summer!