Aaaarrrrrgggggghhhhh!!! I didn't know

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Aaaarrrrrgggggghhhhh!!! I didn't know
11
Thu, 03-23-2006 - 4:10pm

that I had to be independently wealthy in order to have a special needs child!!!!

So, I'm checking into summer camp situations for son. One is for social skills.....two hours a day - 3 days a week.....$350 A WEEK!!!!!!

Even better is a 2 week (Monday thru Friday - 9 am to 4 pm) intensive camp that has OT, ST, hippotherapy and several other great programs......$3600!!!!!!

There is no way we can afford any of this. I quit my job 2 years ago and we are living on DH's salary.....decent but not great.

Holy whole in a donut Batman......how can we afford this!

Just whining.....

Christie

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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-19-2005
Fri, 03-24-2006 - 9:13am

Hi Christie,

I feel your pain! We are also weighing our summer options. It's rough. We could send him to a very good autism-based camp that uses "fun" activities to work with them on pragmatics, speech, ot etc., taught by an ST and OT, small groups. But this is also $300/week for half days.

We currently pay about this amount for Eric's private ST and OT bc our insurance does not cover, so to afford the camp, we'd have to drop the private ST and OT. This would be the best educational option, but we don't want to lose our "spot" with the therapists since there is always a waiting list and we would want to go back with them in the fall.

So our other options are a typical little half/day camp at a children's museum that has small teacher student ratio in a very caring environment but no special accommodations for ASD kids ($87/week, 1/2 days) although they have had HF ASD kids there before and are open to our suggestions, I think. But it would take a lot of work on my part, I believe, to make this option work.

Or, Eric is currently in a special gymnastics class for ASD kids. They are having a camp too, $100/week, half days. He'd love it, but it would just be gymnastics/sensory stuff. Still, it would be fun and with teachers he already knows.

We haven't decided yet.

I don't know why everything is so expensive!

Katherine

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