CAMP YACKETY YACK

Janelle Sampson

Novita Childrens Services SA

janelle.sampson@novita.org.au

This year, South Australia has joined the growing list of states running a camp

for children with complex communication needs.  Novita Childrens Services was

successful in obtaining a grant from Community Benefits SA to fund the camp, and with some encouragement and much appreciated resource sharing from both Jane Farrall and Wendy Webster, we managed to get things underway last year.  The result was a fun and exciting camp held at Mylor in the Adelaide Hills from February 10-12, 2006.

Camp Yackety Yack actually started in November when we held a social event to allow kids, families and staff to get to know each other before the first day of camp.  This helped to ease a bit of the anxiety about a weekend camp for the some of the families. A few had met previously but most had not. We achieved our goal and everyone had a blast at the Showdown Yackety Yack where Adelaide Crows fans faced off against Port Adelaide Power fans for balloon footy and bingo.  Some new friendships began that night which left the kids and families keen to catch up again at camp in February.

The camp started on Friday afternoon with a bushwalk along the creek. Then, similar to Camp Have a Chat, we had an Arts focus for the rest of the weekend. Highlights of the program included:

·         Creative arts activities coordinated by Tony Hannan from KneeHigh Puppeteers. Tony managed to involve everyone from the group in the construction of a huge inflatable Yak made of plastic and sticky tape.  Once inflated, the Yak was the central hub of most of the fun at camp.  Tony also led the kids in shadow puppet activities and other crafts.

·         Drum workshops (group and individual) conducted by Andrew Hewitt, an accomplished drummer from Sydney who also has cerebral palsy.  All of the kids said the drum workshops were one of their favourite activities at camp.  Andrew did a fantastic job to include each of the kids at their own level of ability and interest and we have since had at least one parent looking into drum lessons for his son.  For those OTs out there, the drumming was a very motivating 2-handed activity, especially when rocking on to ACDC and Queens of the Stone Age.

·         Story Telling Each of the kids came with a story or short speech pre-programmed on his or her device to tell at Friday nights candlelight gathering under the stars.  Some were a little shy at first but once they started there was no stopping them. Some of the kids had much more to tell than just their story and really enjoyed hearing themselves amplified over the PA system, both with their devices and with their voices.  Needless to say we have some budding performers! They again took the limelight at the end of camp when they each grabbed the microphone to tell about their time at camp. These stories were also stored in their devices ready for news time at school on Monday.

·         Cameron West, a Pathfinder user from Melbourne, attended the camp as a mentor and role model for the children throughout the weekend and chatted with most of the parents, both individually and as a group.  This was one of the most valuable aspects of camp, particularly for the older kids and families.  Many had not seen a competent adult AAC user before and the impact on the families was reflected in their evaluation comments and interest in Cams group presentation on Sunday morning.

·         Kate Armstrong helped all of the kids and siblings to screen-print then personalize camp T-shirts. We saw some great designs with buttons, fringing and cricket bats with a lot of pink for the girls.

·         The Saturday night wine and cheese relaxation session for the parents was much appreciated while staff and kids whooped it up at a disco dress-up party.

·         Throughout the weekend families could access information sessions and individual device problem solving with the suppliers.

As the coordinator, I couldnt have hoped for more from our first camp in SA for 10 years. We had a great mix of kids and families, some excellent Speech Pathology students from Flinders University, and an amazing staff who worked hard to make the camp run smoothly.  The main goals of this first camp were:

1. Making connections with others and building social networks

2. Integrating AAC into everyday life.

We definitely achieved the first one and did pretty well with the second.  It was great to see the kids watching each other using their devices, in a place where there was always the opportunity and expectation that they would communicate actively and participate. Of course there are many ways to improve and bigger goals to strive for, but we hope to have the chance to do that at the next camp.

Now comes the next step in the process and that is to find funding for another camp and hopefully more after that.  Back to writing grant proposals! At least I have some families keen to support me. In the meantime, we have managed to get most of the group together again and are meeting up at the Adelaide Zoo during the Accessible Zoo Days weekend organized by ParaQuad SA in April. All of the kids are looking forward to catching up with their camp mates again and I think the families are too.

If anyone out there is thinking of running a camp, heres my advice.  Be prepared to put in a lot of hard work to get there, but know that you will get out of it much more than you have put in when you see the smiles on faces and hear what the kids and families have to say.  If you want to see more photos and feedback from camp, check out the Novita website for a downloadable pdf wrap-up of camp.  Go to www.novita.org.au, search AAC, then click on the Camp Yackety Yack heading in the Contents list or e-mail me at janelle.sampson@novita.org.au.