Lessons from autism camp that will work anywhere

Oct 24th, 2024

From Campfire Stories to Career Stories: How to 10x Your Staff’s Future - ACA Staffing Summit

Lessons From Level 10 Meltdown Prevention

There are over 15,000 summer camps spread throughout the United States. And no two are the same.

It’s one of the beautiful things about this industry.

We can travel to any one of them and take things away from their programs, their staff, their grounds, and what they value on a day-to-day, summer-to-summer basis.

GO VISIT CAMPS!

Spending a week at Camp Skywild this summer reinforced this idea in so many different ways. A super special place in Michigan running for just one week a summer, serving such an eclectic group of campers.

Camp Skywild’s population is specifically for kids on the autism spectrum along with their siblings.

They let kids “Have a ton of fun at camp!”

And because of what they do, Camp Skywild has put a ton (and I mean a ton) of time into making sure their single week of camp is the single best experience these kids have all year

They do this in a bunch of different ways, and there are five things every camp could use.

Let's Talk Training

In a second I'll break down 5 specific takeaways, but the real magic is focusing on a staff culture where it is cool to bring people in, to help outsiders become insiders.

Three Keys

1) Illuminate the hidden curriculum

2) Help the staff love each other

3) Make camp fun

I travel all of May and June training camp staff on this. I'd love to work work with you. Email me "Let's talk about training"

Camp Skywild’s simple list looks like

WAIT

Write it down

Timer time!

Weird not wrong

Swim twice

We’ll break down each one and see how it might apply to summer camps running the whole season with every different kind of population.

As per usual, take what you like, and leave what you don’t like.

1) WAIT!!!

WAIT means “Why Am I Talking?”

When someone around you is activated and having big feelings, ask yourself, “Why am I talking?”

Grown-ups often rush in and start trying to solve the situation by talking, but it rarely solves much. The truth is that we do that because it gives us a sense of control.

The harder thing to do is often to sit with the person who’s activated, shut up, embrace the moment, and trust that it’s going to be okay.

If you find yourself wanting to talk, ask yourself, “Why am I talking?” and if the answer is that it’s because it makes you feel better, kindly shh…!

2) Write It Down

You’ve told all of the camps that the bathhouse on the south side of the camp is only going to be open during specific times. But for some reason, three cabins have already used it, and not at the scheduled times.

At Camp SkyWild, there’s an expectation that if a staff person has to say something more than twice, they will write it down.

We constantly receive so much verbal information at camp, and creating a publicly displayed sign or a visual helps serve as an extra reminder. And you don’t have to repeat it over and over.

You can create signs for anything:

How to clean up after meals

Rules for gaga

The morning schedule

Oh, and bonus points if you make your signs fun. They are usually more memorable that way.

3) Timer Time

At SkyWild, we walk around with timers all day long and use them as an objective way to keep on schedule. We’ve all seen campers struggle with beloved activities ending. Timers can help prepare for tough transitions.

Reasons I like timers:

It takes the “bad guy” role away from the staff person. The timer “enforces” the change, not the person.

You can say, “We have 4 minutes until we leave. Do you want to set the timer or should I do it?” Bam, it’s a super easy way to give campers more control and access to a “novel” tool.

People know what’s coming. Once I see the length of a YouTube video (or better if it has little chapters), I feel a sense of control and understanding over the situation.

Knowing activity lengths and durations eases transitions and expectations. Timers are a great reminder to the facilitator to create checkpoints.

Plus, a pack of 54 is about $56 if you buy them in bulk. There are a bunch of ways to handle timers around camp.

4) Weird Not Wrong

My favorite way to train on this is to ask staff to share something weird they did as a kid.

For instance, I used to play alone in the yard a lot, cover my arms in snails, and show my mom. Weird? Definitely. Wrong? Not really, just cause for a shower.

So often, kid-centered spaces (e.g., schools) have a really hard time accommodating kids who are stimming by moving around, making noise, being energetic, or even making strange jokes all the time.

Camp can hold a lot more of that, and that’s part of what makes camp special.

Let’s acknowledge that there is weird behavior at camp, but let’s also acknowledge that it is not wrong.

We need to do absolutely nothing when someone is stimming, putting ketchup on salad, wearing pajamas all the time, or putting snails on their arms (uhh… maybe I don’t recommend that en masse).

We can embrace it and go on with our days.

5) Swim Twice

Last but certainly not least, and perhaps my favorite, swim twice!

Okay, I don’t mean it literally (necessarily). At SkyWild, free swim is a huge hit with their campers, so it’s in the schedule in the morning and afternoon.

Whatever your people like, give them more of it.

Sometimes, you can’t for logistical or cost reasons, but a lot of times, we make excuses not to. More of the things they like, less of the things they don’t like.

We have a preconceived notion that campers need “a little bit of everything,” but I’ll tell you right now: I don’t need arts and crafts, and I will love camp ten times more if I get to play basketball all day.

Choice-based programming is a great hack for this ;)

There are probably 30 other things that could be subbed for any of these lessons.