The Importance of Spending Nights Away from Home for Children with Special Needs
Get the Best Winter Activities
While these programs have extensive eligibility requirements and enrollment procedures, they are usually free and generally have availability. Some even have opportunities for emergency respite if something urgent should come up for a family.
This is a wonderful way to prepare your child for an eventual camping experience. Your child can visit the program and meet the staff beforehand. She can try short stays and feel comfortable knowing that you are close by if needed—and you can feel comfortable knowing that you are only a phone call away. You can also make your child feel more comfortable by sending her with another child or group that she knows well. That familiarity typically helps a reluctant child adapt.
Find a list of overnight respite programs in the NY metro area here.
Camping and Travel
Once your child has been able to stay overnight at someone else’s home or in a respite program successfully, you may want to think about camp. So many people, and you may be one, have such treasured memories and lifelong friendships from their summers at sleepaway camp. There are a host of camps that cater to the special needs community.
Sometimes the great outdoors doesn’t suit a person. Not everyone loves camp. And not everyone goes on vacation with their parents their entire life. It’s nice to know that there are travel programs for individuals with disabilities, beginning in their teen years. One agency takes kids to Washington, D.C. during certain school breaks. Vacations are often exhausting and don’t feel like a break for parents who have children with a lot of needs. Travel programs can offer an individual the fullest travel experience possible while sparing parents from returning from vacations more depleted of energy than when they left.
Separation Anxiety, but Whose?
Believe it or not, both YAI’s respite and camp programs report that children attending for the first time do well more than 90 percent of the time. Staff are used to helping children get over their anxiety about being away from home, and there are usually so many fun activities planned that the child is often having too good a time to be sad. It’s frequently the parents that struggle the most. That’s why it’s good to start small and start local. Both you and your child will feel better knowing that you’re just a phone call away.
A Deserved Gift for You
And by the way, you deserve a break. While your child is learning and experiencing new things, you can rejuvenate and spend time with other loved ones. Once you feel confident that your child is in safe hands and has had successful overnight stays, you may want to take a vacation yourself. You’ll return to your child refreshed, with the knowledge that you both gained something from the separation. Then when that emergency comes, you will know that your child has the ability to successfully be away from you and away from home, you’ll have resources to call upon to support your child, and with any luck, he will be staying in a familiar place with familiar people that know your child and can provide the best possible support in your stead.
Jennifer Shaoul, MPA, is senior coordinator of YAI LINK (yai.org/link), an information and referral program for people with disabilities and their families whose services include explaining and determining eligibility for services within the YAI network and other programs in the community.
