Pet therapy, outdoor events and sensory activities were among the offerings at the Virgin Islands Autism Centre’s “transitional summer camp programme” for children with autism and other developmental disabilities, according to government.
Crystal Estridge, the centre’s director, said the camp was designed in part to introduce children assigned to the Therapeutic Kindergarten classroom to the routine they will begin when school opens next month.
“This transition camp was structured like a school day, with inclusions of morning snack, afternoon snack, lunch and rest time, which will follow through into the Therapeutic Kindergarten classroom,” she said of the July 4-28 programme.
The centre, she added, is working to use a variety of different mechanisms to help clients develop their cognitive and motor skills early.
“When they go on to school, we want them to have the necessary abilities to now integrate into the formal school system,” she said. “We also have a partnership with the Ministry of Education. The aim is to work together to help prepare them and develop that readiness for school.”
Transitioning
The centre, she added, typically hosts camps during the holiday seasons, but this one focused more closely on clients transitioning to kindergarten.
The camp was largely successful in assisting the participants, she said, adding that she hopes it can expand next year.
“In the future, we would probably want it to be larger in the scale of the areas that we tackle and the diversity of the activities,” she said. “For this specific camp, we had one excursion to the [J.R. O’Neal] Botanic Gardens, and next year we wouldlike to do more trips so that they could have exposure to a wider range of activities.”