Mission

The mission of Apex Summer Camp is to provide and develop an evidence-based summer program designed specifically for children with ASD and ADHD. It utilizes a naturalistic camp environment to focus on building social skills, positive relationships, and self-esteem within the context of structured recreational and learning activities. We engage leading experts to provide clinical training, supervision, support, and consultation for our program.

The UW Autism Center's summer day camp program aims to provide a structured, data-based, and individualized program for campers. It also aims to train and engage emerging professionals in the field of evidence-based behavioral intervention.

Philosophy

Our philosophy is that naturalistic environments offer the best opportunities for learning and generalizing meaningful skills. To this end, our program involves common age-appropriate recreational activities. At the same time, our program is highly structured, providing an underlying framework to maximize learning opportunities. We introduce new skills through direct teaching and explicit rehearsal, with practice throughout the day. Behavioral data are collected during all activities, providing data-based progress monitoring. We utilize positive reinforcement to shape behavior, accompanied by prompting and feedback as appropriate. Parent partnerships are essential, assisting in the identification of target skills and facilitating learning across environments.

Program Design

The camp program is designed to build and practice social skills and self-esteem within the context of structured recreational and learning activities. Children participate in typical camp activities including sports, games, and arts and crafts. We introduce new skills through direct teaching, explicit rehearsal including modeling and role-playing, with practice and reinforcement throughout the day across activities. Each day focuses on a specific skill such as turn taking or eye contact, with broad emphasis on key themes such as communication, participation, and cooperation. Targets of treatment include improvements in the quality of peer

interactions, increases in self-efficacy and confidence, and enhanced self-regulation of emotions and behavior. The program offers 150 hours of treatment in 5 weeks, roughly the equivalent of 2 years of clinic or school-based social skills training.

The program includes the implementation of a reward system in which children earn points for appropriate behavior, such as helping peers, staying on task, following rules, and appropriate social interaction (e.g. maintaining personal space, initiating social approaches, appropriate questions). Point accumulation entitles children to rewards on a daily and weekly basis. Behaviors are tracked throughout the day, with each hour divided into 4 intervals. Data tracking proceeds continuously, with individual progress monitoring occurring on a daily and weekly basis. Daily report cards are sent home to parents to provide feedback to the child and parent regarding daily and weekly performance. Expert clinical supervision occurs weekly, with individualized intervention programs implemented and modified accordingly.