Picking a Summer Program

I am feeling completely overwhelmed, especially at this time of year as so many programming decisions need to be made. We are still working on the transition to kindergarten, but for the moment my focus has shifted to behavioral health as we approach the start date to apply for a Summer Therapeutic Activities Program. This is our first year to participate in STAP, as it is more commonly known, and I hear it will be a mad dash once April 24th rolls around. Yikes, that’s next Thursday, and I am still not 100% sure the psychologist is on track for getting the addendum to his psych eval done as soon as possible.

I have spent the last two days talking to the STAP providers in our county, of which there are 8. Two are not specifically targeted towards autism, although one of those would take a child who is high-functioning. One of the ASD programs is for age 14-21, so that is out, and another hasn’t returned my call. So now I need to rank the 4 remaining programs, and that is one of the many reasons I am feeling overwhelmed right now.

Do I pick the one that is integrated with typical children but is mostly outdoors with swimming everyday and some team sports (both new to my child and likely very challenging)? It has a 4:1 ratio (4 campers to 1 staff) and has lots of field trips so requires a fairly high level of socialization and self-regulation, not easy to come by when you are faced with so many new experiences all at once. My gut instinct on this one is maybe next year, but I will say that the program director is very open and willing to work with each child on a case by case basis.

Two of the others are a 2:1 ratio and have once a week field trips with some incoming events as well (fire truck, etc) and incorporate some sort of curriculum involving individual learning in addition to social groups and arts/crafts (primarily used for following directions and fine motor skills, not for artistic ability). One of these is 2 doors from where I work, although that is not a big deal as transportation would be provided to and from home if he needs it. Both of these contacts were helpful but less enthusiastic in general; both are mailing me a brochure. They sound fine, but my instincts are this is too restricted an environment giving our intentions of a regular classroom for the fall.

The one that has really caught my attention has a 3:1 ratio, which might be a nice middle ground, and follows more of a preschool style curriculum in the morning, with circle time, different activities of 10-20 minutes each depending on the kids’ attention spans, includes sensory stimulation, arts/crafts and games with free play interspersed. After lunch, they usually go outside to local parks/playground (their office is in downtown Harrisburg right on the river so not sure exactly where they would be going for that).

This last one also has an afternoon program that he could go into when STAP is over, although the timing would be a bit tricky given our school district’s kindergarten schedule, and we may just decide to have him go to a half-day daycare instead. What is nice is that we can visit this program to get a feel for how they run things in general.

So, what I really have to do tomorrow is firm things up with the psychologist. If she is not able to be timely, I may have to have a whole new evaluation done at one of the other agencies, but then that opens another can of worms about the fall, which I can’t even think about right now. If the paperwork doesn’t get in quickly enough, which program is best will really be a moot point.

Thanks for letting me ramble – prayers and advice are welcome (and I promise to post another autism resource list tomorrow; I know I am behind on those). At least we don’t have anything other than church planned for this weekend, so we can all have a little time to decompress.

Related Posts:

• A Very Good Day
• UPDATED: The Summer Program Stress Continues
• In Short – Spring Bad, Summer Good

Tagged as: psychologists, STAP, summer programs