Parents Talk: Making Summer Work with Special Needs Children

Welcome to Moms Talk, which is Parents Talk this week, as a local dad joins the exchange. Last week we looked at making summer work for you. This week we put the same question to special needs parents in the "Similarly Different" Special Needs Support Group of the

Kathy Aluia: My philosophy: Take a deep breath and step back...try to observe and support your child's needs as opposed to becoming emotionally engaged in what your child is going through right now.

My plans have been dependent on the stage my boys were at and what I set as a priority to accomplish that summer. It takes time for your child to adjust to change. One of my children has a history of sensory, transition and separation issues. Summer didn’t seem to be the time to work on these issues as we had other priorities. I should note that I only have one priority each summer. 

As a result, I didn’t pursue any summer camps until the summer they completed first grade. It just wasn’t worth the stress. Camps have always been a half day. Prior to that, we either planned a small group play date, field trips to local places (e.g. Wrights Pond, Drumlin Farm, Discovery Museum in Acton, etc…), or stay at home and find things to do (e.g. read books, paint, run through the sprinkler, etc…).

Kathy is the mother of twin 10 year-old boys and has been a Medford resident for 18 years. Kathy heads Medford's SEPAC, Special Education Parent Advisory Council.

Our son requires programming year round to minimize regression, as many special needs children do.  Unfortunately this has been a challenge to coordinate due to the MPS inability to work with respect to other programs and their timelines (as well as the family’s). We have found that most summer programs require that you register as early as March and as late as May, thus no programs are available at the end of June when the MPS finally confirms the summer programming schedule. With the challenge of most programs already full/started, we rely on a private teacher that we have used in past summers to schedule programming in addition to the school's curriculum, as well as for the weeks when there isn't summer programming offered from the MPS. We will also be adding speech and OT services through our health insurance once we finish the necessary paperwork and process. Swimming classes are another activity that we add, since it is something that he enjoys (and also provides sensory input).

Ideally our child's schedule needs to be structured similarly to his school year with the components of speech, OT, an aide, and social skills group. Although the summer schedule is typically reduced hours from his 30 hours-a-week school schedule, we try to keep his schedule as full as possible. 

Change of programming and schedules is an additional challenge to a special needs child. We try and meet the teacher and visit the classroom in advance whenever possible to make it a smoother transition for our child. We also develop social stories to help our child anticipate the change, thus helping him adapt to the upcoming change.

This Medford mom has been a resident for eight years and has a 5 year-old boy.

Mike Gagne:

1. Set up a water park in your yard. Cheap sprinklers and a hose work well for sensory and tucker the little ones out with what can sometimes be hours of entertainment. If you happen to have a slide in your yard we have watered that down and put something soft at the bottom and let them go crazy on that. Also, if funds are available, inexpensive slip and slides are great.
2. We have also set up a tent in the backyard (if the tent is small enough you could do it in the house) to simulate “Going Camping”. It’s like an outdoor play room!
3. A movie is a good way to change it up, especially now with "Cars 2" out and "Winnie the Pooh" coming out. There are more movie theaters offering special sensory suited screenings of certain movies for special needs children. Special screenings allow for a more understanding environment for special needs children and a less stressful environment for the parent…..parents of special needs children tend not to get upset when things get disruptive because this is the world we are accustomed to.
4. For those days (like today) that are just stiflingly hot and outdoor fun may not be fun…..a cool room and a board game can pass some time and can be fun for everyone. Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, etc. offer lessons in counting, colors and turn taking and will also help parents hone in on their patience.
5. To keep the brain active during the summer “down time” and seeing that the boys will be going into Kindergarten in the fall, we have implemented a daily journal. With this we will try to get them to practice writing one letter and one number per day and hopefully draw a picture or write something that they liked that they may have seen during the day. This can be a two minute, 15 minute or as long as they want task, just so long as they get some practice to keep the mind fresh (if possible). This is a work in progress so I will have to let you know how it really works out. Also Gavin’s in summer school, so I don’t want to work him too hard, but so far he seems to like it.
6. To manage the summer and not stir the pot too much we try to maintain the same schedule during the summer as we would during the school year. With Gavin in summer school it makes it somewhat easier, but the longer days make it a bit confusing for both of them because “It’s not bedtime! It’s still morning!” or so I’ve been told. If you try to maintain the schedule they tend to stay on track…..to a point. Same evening routine and bedtime is important in our house. It keeps our world “sane”, although that word is loosely used around here! I believe this life in general could be considered the asylum side of sane.  Which, to look at it in the positive, keeps it new and fresh every single day!
7. As for dealing with the ever popular IEP, I believe, and I know for some it’s not possible, that for the month of July it should be put aside. You as a parent need a break too. Sometimes when you put things that you’ve been looking at a lot aside it gives your mind a well-deserved rest. That way when you come back and start again your fresh and ready to deal with this daunting task with more vigor.

Mike is the father of twin 5 year-old boys and has been a Medford resident for five years.