Hands On Education

Well, I do not know where to begin - and I have about 15 mins. to get it all out. I have finished session two and three. Session three was for persons with developmental disabilities between the ages of 18-50. In my cabin there were three counselors and five campers. My campers were girls in there early 20s. It was a really hard ten day session. This has been our longest session yet. One of my campers ended up having to go back to her group home four days early because she was being physical with the counselors and campers. We had one camper that had down syndrome. She was so adorable...we could just eat her up. We gave her the nickname Ms. Giggles. Then we had another camper that was Autistic - she was very intelligent, but had all the classic autistic behaviors. All of her evaluations and in talking with some of her past counselors - I was nervous about her being in our cabin. I was told that she did not like to follow rules and that she would all sit around and cry saying that she wanted to call her mom. Then eventually they would let her call her mom. My boss told me that we should redirect her as much as possible and to try to get her to participate in the activities without having to call her mom. Well, the old counselors were partly right - she did sit around and scream for her mom. One of my counselors kept trying to talk to her and they kept telling her look at me when I am talking to you - then they started getting mad when she would not look at her. It made me mad that, one, they would get mad over that, and two, they did not listen to me about this type of disability not making eye contact. She ended up attaching her self to me because I would sit down and talk with her and convinced her that it was better to write her mom letters... so we set up special times for her to write her mom. Then about half way through the session I rewarded her good behavior with a call home to her mom. She was so excited. She really only cried the first day and a half.

Now, we are in session four. Session four is with three counselors and you have anywhere from 3 to five campers per room - with ages varying from 5 to 18. This session we are working with a school - Bridge School, which "is an educational program dedicated to ensuring that children with severe speech and physical impairment achieve full participation in their communities through the use of augmentative & alternative means of communication (AAC) and assistive technology (AT) applications. Bridge School has established an outreach program to share what is developed at the school with parents, professionals and users of AAC/AT across the world. We invite you to explore this site to learn more about who we are, what we believe and ways that you can either benefit from or contribute to the ongoing programs, projects and activities that move all people closer to a life without barriers to expression and communication."

Click here to view a link about Bridge School at Camp Harmon and see pictures of some of our facilities. http://bridgeschool.org/camp.html Once the page has loaded click Camp 04 View Presentation.

In my cabin we have five girls, ages 15 to 16. They are cute as a button, but give us a workout. They are all non-communicative. Four of the girls use computers to talk for them. Two of the computers are touch screens and another one is controlled by laser and a silver sticker on her cheek, and the last one is controlled by a button that we push when she makes a sound. It is amazing how sometimes we under estimate our campers when they know exactly what they are doing, and can pull cracks with the rest of us.

My cabin is really challenging and they keep me up at night - my others counselors don't seem to hear them - but I love my campers. I have camper that has seizures at least once a day, cerebal palsy and has no form or communication, with the exception of a burger button that, because of her cerebal palsy, she has trouble pushing. This camper is pretty much my responsibility, because my other counselors have never worked with people with disabilities and they are kind of scared when she screams or makes a noise. The other campers are awesome as well.

I like this session a lot because this is the age group that I will be working with.

So little time and so much to say...I hope this sound coherent.