O
ur mission is to enhance the health, social engagement, and personal growth of people with autism through challenging, attainable, and enjoyable athletic programs which lead to the incorporation of recreations sports into daily life.
ESC believes that learning a sport or any physical activity is best accomplished through sustained and repeated immersion, coupled with the expectation that the participant can in fact progress to the next level. We have chosen activities that can be “extreme” to an ASD child but which can also be mastered by that child through incremental learning. The activity provides an intrinsic motivation to learn and work, and the staff of ESC provides the specialized instruction to enable the camper to succeed.
Unlike their typical peers, children and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have few opportunities to experience the more advanced, age-appropriate physical activities which truly challenge them. Extreme Sports Camp provides this opportunity and the underlying instructional approach to realize it. Learning a sport is best accomplished through sustained and repeated immersion, coupled with the expectation that each camper can in fact reach his or her next level. We have chosen sports that can be “extreme” to an ASD child but which can also be mastered by that child through incremental learning.
For example, it can be daunting to a non-verbal child to look over the edge of a cliff that he’s being asked to
rappel down, but his climbing harness makes him safe and he is coached on how to make it down – and once he does it, he finds it is exhilarating, fun, and rewarding. It can also seem forbidding to someone with autism to be placed in the middle of a lake on a water
tube while the boat pulls away, but he has a life vest on and a counselor beside him, and once he’s moving he sees that he can hold on and enjoy the exhilarating ride as he begins to love every minute of the experience. Then he’s ready for the next step: to move from a tube to
water skis, or to move from a low, gentle cliff to a more difficult climb. The sports chosen by Extreme Sports Camp foster motor planning and skills that can lead to higher cognitive function and improved behavior. The activities chosen can be individualized, are free of complicated rules, and are intrinsically fun and motivating to the average person with an ASD no matter what level of mastery they have achieved. The sports are available in most communities or on family vacations, so learning gained at camp can be generalized and strengthened back home. The goals for our campers are fourfold:
- To foster the long term incorporation of recreational sports into daily life which is so important to human physical and mental health;
- To improve cognitive, linguistic, motor, and social skills through physical action and group interaction;
- To promote personal growth and independence; and
- To have a fun experience.
CAMP EXPERIENCE
Camp activities take place near the beautiful town of Aspen, Colorado and in the surrounding Roaring Fork Valley, a setting ideal for outdoor recreation. The Aspen area abounds with mountains, rivers, lakes, trails, forests, and waterfalls. The summer program lasts from June to August. Our core summer sports consist of wall/rock climbing, whitewater kayaking and rafting, and water sports (water skiing, surfing, wakeboarding, and tubing). Fun but athletic diversions include swimming, giant water slides, and hiking. Activities take place during the day over a one week period. Campers can enroll in multiple sessions. Our winter program lasts from December until April and consists of snow skiing and boarding, with après-ski activities. Winter activities can be part of a camp or just one-on-one with a pro or ski buddy.
Enrollment is for boys and girls, ages 5 and up. Campers participate in activities as a group but have the benefit of one-to-one camper/counselor interaction. Overnight supervision in the summer can be from one of our aides or from a family member or family-provided aide. The winter program is a day-only format. Our core physical activities are limited in number and repeated several times over the course of the session. In this way, campers are more likely to reach a level of competency, as confidence levels increase. Our program staff assesses the skills of each participant, and counselors provide one-on-one individualized instruction and support. Each of the activities is scaffolded into multi-challenge levels, and the campers are encouraged by staff to try new activities and improve their skills. A camper can opt for a more comfortable level of participation at any time. In this manner, each child has the opportunity to participate at his/her own pace and competency, and everyone can be taken to his/her next level of physical development.
GOALS
It is our hope that the children will build upon their Extreme Sports Camp experiences and develop an appreciation for nature and physical leisure time activities that will become healthy and social components of their lifestyles, and that these interests will stay with them into adulthood.
Recreational Sports as a Lifelong Activity: It is our belief that motivating and fun recreational activities promote an interest in physical fitness and increase life-long leisure time activity options. True physical fitness means optimal strength, dexterity, muscle tone, agility, aerobic conditioning, and weight control, all of which are targets of our sports agenda. Research has shown that a program of regular exercise results in improved long term health, including reductions in cardiovascular disease. Exercise requiring more complex routines may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and general cognitive decline. More complex motor activities which challenge the individual and require attention to task can lead to improved body awareness, sensory processing, and motor control. Proficiency in “typical” recreational activities can also lead to a more integrated life within the wider community during teen and adult years.
Cognitive, Linguistic, Motor, and Social Gains: The premise of Extreme Sports Camp and its focus on sustained physical activity is that motor planning proficiency, from a neurological standpoint, provides the underpinnings for a host of complex and extremely important functions. Many of us are aware of the effects of motor planning ability on gross and fine motor skill development such as those used in activities of daily living (sitting, raising oneself from sitting, standing, weight shifting, balancing, walking, feeding, using utensils and appliances, and grooming) and, to a higher level, graphic motor or writing skills. However, few people recognize the impact of poor motor planning skills on an individual’s linguistic and cognitive skills. Research has shown that the same basic “planning” or organization which underlies self help skills also underlies linguistic and cognitive sequencing and access to organized ideas, thoughts and problem solving functions. Highly motivating physical activities, which are based on activating and developing automatic experiences of successful sequences of movements -such as those used when skiing, hiking, swimming and the like – provide unique opportunities for the experience of healthy motor planning.
Quality and intensity of intervention is typically more important than quantity, especially for neurological “imprinting” of patterns and skills. Gains attained through these unique experiences of healthy motor planning patterns have the potential to generalize across many other areas of skill acquisition. We believe that participants gain immediate access to increased focus and the ability to attend to a task, and also experience reduction in anxiety and distractibility (from both external and internal stimuli), after participating in these centering and all encompassing types of skill based physical activities. Through these experiences, they learn how to access external stimuli for use in decision-making. Increased language production, related-language content and improved processing skills have been noted after participating in kayaking, climbing, skiing and other goal-oriented motor tasks. Capitalizing on these opportunities, expansion of communicative and social interaction is encouraged and facilitated by our camp staff. Our staff is trained to elicit frequent social communication exchanges, whether verbal, picture- or computer-based. Camperto- camper and camper-to-counselor exchanges are both promoted.
Personal Growth
A feeling of well-being, restfulness, and accomplishment, such as we all experience after participating in these types of athletics, may have an even more dramatic impact on the person on the autism spectrum. Such feelings can have a positive impact on behavior. Living away from home in an unfamiliar place with an assigned aide provides a supportive environment to achieve greater independence. Expectations for help in meal preparation and tidying up at camp promote self reliance and daily living skills.
