A question for all you parents

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Hi I was wondering if you could all just take a moment and give me some feed back on this, it would be much appreciated.

I am in college right now and majoring in recreation. I will be graduating in about a year and was hoping to start up a summer camp for children and young adults with autism and asperger's. I myself am diagnosid with asperger's and always longed to go to camp when I was a kid since so many of my peers would talk about it, but I was always to scared to even ask my parents about it. So I have come up with this idea to create a camp that would only cater to children with autism or asperger's. I know that if there was a camp like that when I was a kid I would have jumped at the opprotunity because I would know that everyone there was like me.

So my question to you parents is......if there was a summer camp in your area that would cater to your child with autism or asperger's would you send them to it?
If so, what types of things would you like to see there/what do you think your kids would like there.
If not, why. What would help change your mind?

Please talk to your kids about it as well I would love to know their ideas as well.

Thank you so much I really appreciate this. Everything will help.

Just asked my sons, they said:
-special helpers who like to be around kids with autism
-a sensory room (room filled with yoga balls, weighted toys, fidgets etc)
-working together to do puzzles
-canoeing
-archery
-fencing (for older kids)
-lots of activities

No people who are too strict,and nothing too loud.

And as for me, the people working with the kids would be the most important part. They would have to be really knowledgeable about ASD and really positive. It would be great if such a camp was a place where ASD kids could end up feeling successful and competent, socially and as far as the activities were concerned. It is a cool idea.

I actually just read about such a camp. Not sure where it is. I think it's a lovely idea, but don't think my son is emotionally ready for sleepaway camp yet.

I absolutely LOVE the idea.
But as a parent, I would have to visit this camp, to see how the staff handle my child, as well as other children.
That is all I can think of right this second to say.

Do you think it may be a good idea to also offer a day camp option?

Thank you so much for the replies so far. It has really given me some new ideas and some points of views that will help me continue to develop this idea further. I would love to hear more, everything will help create what I think may become some of the most amazing experiences and memories for many children and families to come.

Would it help if there was an open house or a conference with the parents and children of some sort before your child left?

Open houses and conferences would both be essential. Most camps have something of this sort to introduce prospective campers to their camps, and in the case of these campers, it would be even more important.

My child is over the age for camp, but had one been available, and if he'd been willing to consider it, I think it would have been a great idea. I'm not sure he'd have been willing, but that's a completely different issue.

Bunks might have to have fewer children or larger spaces than many camps, to insure that each child's "stuff" is adequately separated from each other's. There could be some serious problems if each child didn't have any "private" space, which is a fairly routine situation at typical camps.

A day camp option would make me very happy. It's so hard to know how to keep my son entertained during summer. I wish we had one nearby.

My concern would be that such a camp would draw primarily kids with learning disabilities.

To change my mind, I'd have to be convinced that the camp was drawing the full spectrum of auties/aspies, including the more intelligent ones - or to put it another way, they were being selected based on personality rather than ability. For example, including anyone who scored more than some cutoff AQ, like 26 or 32, would help. In that case, I might like the idea a lot. Knowing that it was run by an aspie would also help.

There is such a camp in Pennsylvania I think it is. It is very expensive. There are some posts about it elsewhere here and an article that discuss choosing between special needs or mainstream camp.

A day camp would be a great idea, but you may have difficulty finding an area with a concentrated enough AS population to fill it. After all, all the kids have to be an easy drive away.

There are some great camps around but they are all pricy. I'd love to send my kids away for that kind of thing, but of course I'd have to check out the specifics.

It'd have to have some kind of exciting sciency options, and then some other things that they could be encouraged to try like canoeing. Family camp weekends or weeks would be great so we could all come together. My 13yo has trouble being away from us, My two Aspies long for deeper friendships and we are struggling to help them develop the skills to make that happen.

We'd also need to know that my 13 year old got his meds, for him that's critical. He's got disabilities beyond the AS, but is very bright, funny and capable.

WOW this is all great info. I hope to create a camp with all of this info and hopefully it will spread to all your different ares in the future. The more the better, keep it coming. Thank you ALL!