Summer Time

It has been my experience that most kids have a few favorite times of year, certainly Christmas is high on the list, Halloween, their birthday, and of course summer vacation.  Certainly there are other dates and times that are special to kids, but these are some of the most loved times.  I think looking back on childhood, a lot of us would also consider these to be significant times in our lives.  

Holden is one of those rare kids, that does not do well over summer.  It’s not so much that he doesn’t like summer, as much as he struggles when he is out of school.  He loses a lot of the structure he so craves, and finds himself wanting for stimulation: sensory, emotional, and intellectual.  

In preparation for this years summer break, we, of course, enrolled Holden in extended school year (summer school in other words) like we do every year, but that is almost three hours shorter than the regular school day.  I also enrolled him in a special summer camp, that had one on ones available to a limited number of developmentally disabled kids.  I was able to put Holden in three weeks of this camp.  I thought this would really help him have some of the structure he wasn’t getting as a result of being out of school.  Unfortunately it did not fulfill his needs, and it became something that he only wanted to participate in certain aspects of.  It was often difficult to get him to go, and I had to stay with him sometimes for over an hour, before he was ready for me to leave.  It was a good experiment, that unfortunately turned out to be the wrong idea.  

For the rest of summer, I dedicated myself to giving Holden all the stimulation he required.  I was in the proverbial catch 22.  I could leave him to his own devices, and become very frustrated and exhausted trying to keep him out of trouble.  Or I could dedicate myself to giving him the stimulation he needed to keep him out of trouble.  This too was exhausting, and sometimes frustrating, but the difference was a happy Holden.  There is no question that Holden happy, and not anxious, and not getting into trouble every second, was much preferable to the alternative.  I just had to drop off the face of the earth for a while.  Even though I was exhausted and sometimes frustrated, it was so great not to be fighting with Holden, having power struggles with him, or literally putting out fires, floods, and mayhem.  

I think next year I will try to find another summer camp, to take up a few of the weeks of no school.  This time I will be searching for much different parameters than what I found this year.  I also will take on the task of being there for him the rest of the time, and create the environment that I now know helps him so much.  There is no question that Holden had his best summer ever.  There is no question that his transition to school has been way smoother.  He has already had to deal with two different bus drivers, and a camera on the bus now, that sometimes works (red light on) and sometimes doesn’t, and he has handled these things much better than I would have thought.  

So I will not make excuses for myself, for having not written a blog in way too long, but I will take shelter in the thought that I succeeded in helping Holden have his best summer since being in school.