Every after school and summer enrichment provider I know has a story. No. That's not it. Several stories.
There was Treena, who was enrolled in Melinda's sculpting class. Five children sat enthralled with their goopy creations, while 10 year old Treena stood at Melinda's elbow asking over and over again, "When are we going to eat ice cream?" Treena did not ask once, or twice, or even three times. She interrupted instruction with this question every few minutes for an hour, in spite of being told "At 1:00, Treena," with every iteration of the question. Only later did Melinda learn that Treena had an autism spectrum disorder.
There was Enrico, who spent much of his time in nature camp examining the sky for clouds and asking the counselors, voice strained with obvious stress, if they thought there was going to be a storm. When the camp director asked his mother about his behavior, she explained that Enrico had an anxiety disorder. The director could not understand why Enrico's parents had not told him before.
By contrast, Devin's father did ask Alyssa if she felt she could include Devin, diagnosed with high functioning autism, in her drama program. Alyssa wanted to be able to include everyone, but she wondered if she was truly prepared to help Devin and the other kids have a positive, safe experience together.
Of course, ask the families and they'll have their own stories to share. Ask Leslie and she will tell you she attributes disclosing her son’s Asperger's syndrome to his being turned down by an enrichment program for gifted students. Sabrina, supporting her family on a single income, thought she was lucky to find a program to take her daughter Meg, who has a developmental disability, all summer so she could continue to work. That is, she felt lucky until Meg was expelled due to her daily meltdowns at the end of recess. It was by now too late to enroll Meg in another program, and the families’ sole bread earner had no backup plans for child care.
Children with developmental disabilities are not the only one’s whose needs are not being met. Boyd’s counselors never grasped the seriousness of his heart condition and pressured him to do physical activities that exhausted him. Daja loved the outdoors, but no nature camps in her community were wheelchair accessible. Kemper had never been to an art camp, because he had lost his right arm in an accident. And Andrea’s Daisy Scout Leader assumed she had a speech impairment. She had no idea that Andrea was deaf until the day her hearing aid broke on a camping trip.
I have altered some information for the sake of anonymity, but every anecdote above is based on a real experience that a provider, parent, or professional has shared with me. During the regular school day a child with special needs is entitled by law to supports and accommodations that will permit him or her to learn, socialize, and grow in the least restrictive, most inclusive environment possible. The child and the child’s teachers have access to specialists, special education teachers, one to one aides, adaptive materials, and resource rooms.
Once the school day ends, few supported enrichment opportunities are available. The small number of enrichment programs designed to support children with disabilities are rarely inclusive programs; that is to say, children who have special needs and wish to participate in afterschool and summer programs are generally separated from children without special needs. Moreover, most programs I am familiar with for special needs children are geared towards and populated by children with intellectual disabilities and not always the most appropriate placement for children with different challenges.
The current status quo is highly problematic for several reasons. Among these:
- Children with disabilities are at least as much in need of the benefits offered by participation in structured extracurricular activities as any other children.
- Lack of access to safe, appropriate after school and summer programming can severely limit parents’ or guardians’ opportunities to work.
- Children with disabilities who do attend mainstream programs, but are not receiving adequate support cannot be expected to have a positive experience and in some cases their challenging behaviors can interfere with other campers' opportunities to have a positive experience.
The Enrichment Alliance of Virginia is excited to launch this blog to discuss some of the issues related to inclusion and after school and summer programs. On this blog, our program director, Mary Anna Dunn, as well as guest authors, will post articles intended both for families and after school providers on topics such as tips for supporting distractible and/or impulsive children, using prompts, and improving communications between parents and staff.
About The Enrichment Alliance
The Enrichment Alliance of Virginia is an educational non-profit that brings together people resources, and ideas to enrich the out-of-school time of critically under-served children. To learn more about us, please visit our website www.enrichva.org or find us on Facebook. Program director Mary Anna Dunn holds an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from The Curry School of Education at The University of Virginia and has worked in the field of education for more than 25 years. She is the author of And Now For Something Completely Different: Welcoming Children with Aspergers Syndrome in Your Enrichment Program (http://astore.amazon.com/enrichvaorg-20/detail/1469930382). She is also the parent of two children, one with Aspergers Syndrome.
About this Blog
Care will be taken to ensure the dignity and anonymity of children, families, and providers. While situations described may be drawn from life, they will be carefully altered to make the children and programs unidentifiable. To avoid the awkwardness of "his or her", Mary Anna chooses to alternate male and female pronouns in her writing. Guest authors may approach gender issues differently. At this time we are not accepting unsolicited articles.
Our Next Post
Our October post, “Please! Can You Sit Still and Pay Attention?” will be a seven part post offering tips for supporting distractible and/or impulsive children. Other topics in 2012/2013 will include the importance of school enrichment matters, the current state of access for children with disabilities, and inclusion of children on the autism spectrum. Look for new posts on the first working day of each month. Serial post may run several days thereafter.
