AN IDEAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

I developed 3.21, LEARN Camp as a means to implement a vision I had for what an ideal learning environment would look like for my clients and for my daughter.

Predictable 

Predictability was key in developing the schedule. It is critical for students with special needs, especially nonverbal students or students with processing delays, to be able to know intuitively what to expect next in their day to ensure they feel safe in their environment. Therefore, each day of the camp followed the same schedule; for example, campers knew each day to expect snack after music therapy and that making recipes always came after the physical therapist left, etc.

Rigorous Schedule

It was important to develop a schedule where students were actively engaged throughout the day and directed by certified staff members at all times. Each child with special needs had a 1:1 whose role was merely to facilitate the activities under the supervision of experts in their fields, if necessary, versus lead or deliver any instruction.

Daily Therapies

Included within the predictable schedule were daily therapies. To make the most gains, therapists saw students daily by delivering instruction with fun activities for the whole group and rotating to provide 1:1 individualized attention throughout their allotted one hour. The 1:1s facilitated the activity under the direct supervision of the certified staff member. Seeing students in a group setting with shorter amounts of time for 1:1daily instruction produced incredible results versus a standard once or twice a week 1:1 longer session.

Scaffolded Play-Based Activities

The activities at the camp needed to ensure students would be actively engaged in all play-based activities. Aligning with my tutoring sessions, the objective was students would end each session able to independently apply their individualized daily objective without assistance and the skills would build each day. For example, to learn the /sh/ digraph, the campers made the /sh/ sound with their finger over their lips each time they placed a SHirt shaped post-it printed with -sh onto a stomp rocket. They made the /sh/ sound again when they stomped on the rocket and it blasted off into the sky. By the end of each session, each camper was able to identify -sh makes the /sh/ sound; learning through play, presented the objective in an exciting way to set each child up for success and to avoid any potential task performance anxiety since it simply felt like fun. The /sh/ sound was built upon the next day by having the campers listen to or read words (depending on skill level/need) to feed a SHark toy only /sh/ words. Will the shark eat macaroni or SHrimp? A SHip or a sun? Each day scaffolded on the previous day’s developed skills and participants quickly attained and retained the learning objectives using fun scaffolded activities versus worksheets or flashcards.

Reflection

Reflection was drilled into the camp mission; if a camper did not want to participate in an activity, it was our job to reflect and determine if an activity needed to be modified to be more attainable, if more modeling was necessary with explicit instruction on how to meet the objective, or if they perhaps needed a break from the environment and needed a quieter place to work independently if over-stimulated. It was most important to always use reflection in understanding all behaviors of communication. Forcing compliance with activities was never acceptable. Activities were designed to set the students up for success, so we did not need tools such as token boards to coax students to work, and reflection was used as a tool for any potential tweaks that needed to be made throughout the day. 

Reverse Inclusion

Lastly, the camp used reverse inclusion. Each activity and all parts of the day were designed to meet learning objectives for the students with special needs. Reverse inclusion meant students with special needs were in an environment tailored to set them up for success physically, cognitively, and socially so they could focus and benefit from the tasks at hand and feel on par with their peers to expedite learning and social skill development as they were able to feel confident which motivated the learning process. Also, since each activity was created to be fun, peer buddies were happy to participate. Genuine relationships within the unified activities formed as every camper felt on the same level versus feeling like peers were mini teachers.

THE PERFECT TEAM

To allow my vision to come to fruition, I needed a wonderful team…the incredible therapists not only completely aligned with the camp's mission, pedagogy, and developmental philosophies but took this vision and applied their incredible expertise to make magic!!  

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