The summer is a great time for children to relax and enjoy being children, but it can be a problematic time for parents whose children have special needs. Many parents in Delaware rely on summer camps to entertain and supervise their children during the summer. Finding a summer camp that is a good fit for your child becomes a difficult experience if your child struggles in traditional camp settings due to being overlooked, bullied, or unable to manage anger effectively. Also, the summer is an ideal time to find ways to give extra help to your child if he or she is diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Asperger’s disorder, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or has other special needs that affect his or her quality of life.
Valley Day Camp, a non-profit camp for children ages 6 – 12 years, is an exciting summer option that promotes emotional, behavioral, and social growth. The camp is recreational, fun, and offers traditional summer camp activities. What makes this camp unique is that specialized programming is built into the daily activities to provide opportunities for growth in friendship skills, learning about feelings, communication and assertiveness, behavior management/self control, anger management, self worth, and self-confidence.
A low camper to staff ratio and well-trained camp counselors who have experience in mental health and education provide an exciting, safe, structured, and enjoyable atmosphere for your child. The staff not only uses planned times for teaching skills, but the recreational atmosphere provides opportunities for staff to coach children throughout the day in practicing the skills they are learning. VDC also provides resources and support for parents.
VDC includes field trips, fun specials, themed weeks, and various types of special therapies such as art therapy, pony therapy, pet therapy, photography, and drama therapy.
For more information, check out Valley Day Camp’s website,www.valleydaycamp.org, or call 302-559-3443.
Valley Day Camp is a program of a non-profit organization (Development & Research Innovations) that was founded by three psychologists from PCPC (Kim Champion, JD Willetts, and Judi Willetts) and an elementary school teacher (Chris Champion) to provide services that fill gaps in the community.