Tent Camping with Special Children

There is a wide difference in handling an ordinary child and a special child that is an extraordinary person making every minute with the later fruitful by letting her/his claim his disabilities but still welcoming life as if his ordinary.

Summer camp for special children is a supervised program for teenager or adolescent with special disabilities or handicapped. This is conducted (usually) during the summer in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as campers.

Campers in this case are called special children who have special needs: the mentally and physically challenged, abandoned, socially deprived, street smart, the physically and sexual abused, children with autism, with Down syndrome, with cerebral palsy and children with ADHD.

Volunteers are required to attend a training seminar designed to educate them on children with special needs: their characteristics, attributes, needs, how to handle them, and educating other interested people regarding these aspects. This enables the volunteer to be exposed to and to be able to witness the kind of campers they will be handling inside the camp. Throughout the year, volunteers also participate in different programs such as activity planning, assessment, exposure trips and outdoors activities, etc. which contribute to their over-all growth and development as volunteers.

This tent camping is a 10 day summer camp for special children. The camp is held in different rural areas every year and children are invited from government and non-government institutions as well as private families. Everyday there is a scheduled activity that special children will have to participate as well as the volunteer attending to her.

Among the activities during the camp are Mardi gras, Cheering Competition, Dance Festival, Arts & Crafts, Special Olympics, Cultural Night, Nature Study, Field Trips, School Setting and other activities that enhance the child's innate talents, and potentials. Apart from this, volunteers are given a chance to educate the host townspeople on better understanding as regards to children with special needs. The Camp responds to the needs of the special children by educating the people as well as the individual himself.

Special Olympics which are one of the outdoor activities are seen in colourful and large camping tents which provide shelter and covered areas for fun, enjoyment and activities that enhance the motor skills and communication skills of these special children. During location in rural provinces this tents comes in handy for the reason that there are a lot of activities that this children can do inside the tent.

Mardigras is a cultural dance participated with special children letting them feel part of t by dancing and gyrating to the sound of drums.

Dance Festival are the different dance interpretation that the volunteer and the special child rehearsed to be seen publicly.

These camps challenges mentally handicapped children to participate into the new activities increasing independence and giving a loving environment in which the volunteer and campers can interact freely.

The primary aim of these camp is to let the campers feel their independence in a supervised way and to let them feel the different activities as normal as possible. Educating the masses as well as the individual is the best way of interaction in the level that both will be rewarded through information.