Camp, Week 1 - Austin

"When I grow up, I'd like to be an anaconda so that I can eat a person alive. Even though sometimes snakes can be starving proof. And even though I like the Spitting Cobra better".

Summer has begun and, with it, another 10 weeks of camp.

As a Helping Hands Counselor (meaning a 1:1 special needs worker who aims to integrate their camper with exceptional needs into regular camp programming.... [which can be really challenging at times!]), I do not have the same child each week. Helping Hands campers can only come for a maximum of 2 weeks, and it isn't often that HH counselors have the same camper for both weeks (unless they're parents request you or you had tremendous success with the camper in the past).

This week I had Austin. The smartest 6 year old I've ever met, and many 6 year old's have crossed my path! Austin can spell at a grade 5 level (including words such as "probability", which he was very excited to spell for me when I called his home on Sunday evening). He can count by 2's, 3's, 5's, and even 10's. He knows up to his 10x's tables, and is an encyclopedia on the topic of snakes, sharks, whales, and dragons ("Dragons are not real you know Christine. They're only make believe, but I can convince people that I'm a real one sometimes". Oh my! You will have to show me that sometime! Just don't bite my head off... I can't drive home without a head. And plus, if you swallow my hair you could get a hairball.) Austin can run backwards, sideways, and do the Macarena. He can do a somersault into the little kids' pool, and is the BEST at Yahtzee! He is also most untrickable! (Hey Austin! Did I ever tell you about the time I was best friends with a great white shark named Flounder who was ticklish on his tummy, and one day we had a tickel fight? "Nooo waaaaay, I don't believe you! It's just impossible!"). Austin is also the first little person under the age of 8 who can say my name... correctly with the "r" and all (most kids have difficulty with the "R" and resort to calling me "Kissteen", which melts me every time). Among other challenges, Austin has autism.

[Autism is a neurological disorder with impairments in three key areas: social interaction (cannot read other peoples' body language, identify influxes in voice, among other challenges), communication (i.e. verbal or nonverbalness), and behaviour (e.g. often rock back and forth while sitting, finger flap, or walk on their toes, among other things). The incidences of autism have spiked dramatically in the last several years, to approximately 1 in 150 in Canada (reasons for this spike are still under examination, however among them are included the fact that the very definition of autism has been expanding to include more and more criteria, and as a result more and more children are identified with autistic characteristics. That's a long discussion to have though....). Autism presents in a 1:5 Boys:Girls ratio, but despite this gender difference, remains an equal opportunity disorder (caring not about race, ethnicity, and so on). Autism is a spectrum of disorders. The umbrella is PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder). On the far left of the umbrella we have ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), where 50% of the individuals are verbal and 50% are non-verbal (non-verbal people with autism use a variety of alternative communicative methods, including picture communication symbols (PCS), among others). Towards the middle of the PDD umbrella exists Childhood Disintegrative Disorder (CDD), Rhett's (only in females), Asperger's Syndrome (AS: a form of autism where the invidual is HIGHLY knowledgeable in a particular interest, and is HIGHLY socially impaired, but is 100% verbal). Finally, on the far right of the PDD umbrella exists Autism PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental disorder - not otherwise specified. This means that the individual manifests characteristics of autism in ways that do not classify them into any one specific area of the PDD spectrum, however it is undeniable that they should exist on the spectrum in some way). I know enough about autism to fill an entire year's worth of blogs, but for now I think this small introduction serves well enough to inform my reader of the nature of the disorder. Hopefully it hasn't bored anyone (*snoooorreee*).]

I loved Austin from the moment I spoke to him on the phone last Sunday evening. Part of my job is to call the home of my camper each week to ensure the things I have read in their profile are still accurate, and to see about any specific desires from the parents. Normally I just talk to the parent(s), but it happened that Austin was sitting with his mom when I called, and he asked to speak to me. That had never happened to me before, and I was VERY happy it did! He spelled "probability" for me, and told me about his lime green Nintendo DS ("Lime green is the best colour in the rainbow you know". Yes, it's a fantastic colour! My favourite on the rainbow is blue. BUT, my second favourite is lime green! "It is? Well those are the colours of earth. You picked good colours").

On Monday we decided that it would be a good idea if I went to school to learn how to be a Ninja Turtle. Leonardo specifically (he has a blue eye mask after all). And at first I was a bit sketchy of the idea... I just spent upwards of $25,000 on my path to teaching. Was I too late to train to become a hero in a half shell? "No Christine, you're not too late. You just need to practice every day and then you need to cut a hole in the road so you can live in the sewer". That's all it takes? Well, ok.

On Tuesday we practiced kicking our feet and moving our arms (a really hard thing to do you know!) at the same time in the pool. And then, when thinking of things we like to eat during snack time, Austin came up with a fantastic recipe using things in his lunch bag. Apples cut up in vanilla yogurt with crushed Tostito chips sprinkled on top... Mmmmmmmm!

On Thursday we went to Wild Water Works and totally owned the lazy river (which, acting as the motor on the double tube, wasn't so lazy for me. But my legs got a nice work out!). He creamed me in Yahtzee 7 games in a row, and didn't feel an ounce of sorry when I (fake) cried. In fact, I believe pointing and laughing was involved. We spent some time watching the cloud shapes too. Did you know about Ice Cream Land in the sky?!

Today we practiced some amazing talents for the talent show. Austin held a hoola hoop in each hand and put a foot on each hoola hoop. He then walked around the gym like this to the song "Womanizer" (heh hem.. not so camp appropriate, but he wanted it so badly) and got the biggest applause of the show!

Week one went by so fast, and I'm really hoping it is not an indication of how swiftly the summer will fly by. Next week I'll have Lorena, and I think it's going to be awesome (although all that walking at Chippewa is going to annoy the cheese out of her). I love the kids I get to work with like you cannot imagine. I just wish I didn't always have to say goodbye.

"Well, maybe we can see each other at Wild Water Works again. But I'd like you to come play at my house... I have legos."