Special needs kids..do you take them camping?

[thuffrn]

I take my severely autistic, 17 year old daughter camping and she LOVES it. I am just curious of other peoples experiences and any tips, ideas, thought in general about this subject. TIA.

Tammi in MI

[Mike]

Re: Special needs kids..do you take them camping?

Tammi in MI. I think you said it all. You 17 year old daughter loves camping and you bring her. That sounds like a perfect match to me.

I do not have an autistic child, but I do bring young children and one of my greatest concerns I have is finding them if they happened to wander off into the forest. I outfit them with whistles and I trained my dog to search for them.

Probably the smarter thing to do might be to outfit them with an iphone or other tracking device. Funny we never had anything like that when we were kids and we somehow survived, but since the technology exists, might as well use it.

I am not sure if that is a concern for you or not.

What things does your daughter enjoy the most about camping?

Is there any special challenge that you have with your daughter?

[05Kingquad700]

Re: Special needs kids..do you take them camping?

No experience with special needs kids, but everyone should have a whistle on them, and DO NOT wear camo clothing into the woods for regular camping. Search and rescue needs all the help they can get, camo just makes it harder. Luckily I have a girl, who will wear neon pink, purple, and yellows. I have found that "justice" for girls has really bright clothing.

[renodesertfox]

Re: Special needs kids..do you take them camping?

My sister who is now 52 is a special need adult. In days of yore when my parents took us camping they attended to her needs more than mine. But they didn't do anything different. Now as an adult she lives in a group home, has a job where she gets paid although the work isn't above her level of understanding. She also attends summer camps and has a boyfriend now(the same one) for over 20 years. While family camping we all pitched in to watch & help her walk short trails and little jobs about camp. She really enjoys the attention, and still does today. :cool:

[actad]

Re: Special needs kids..do you take them camping?

My 14 month old grandson was just diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. He is one of 4 grandkids aged 2 years old and younger. I bought my trailer last year to go camping with them throughout their childhood - something I could not do with their parents. It will take a bit more preparation now, but I have every intention of taking him camping with the others.

[TroyS]

Re: Special needs kids..do you take them camping?

I don't have an autistic child, but my youngest has got symptoms of ADD. We still bring him camping with us. He enjoys it a whole lot. We make it a point to use our motorhome whenever we're taking a long road trip since his attention span is quite short and he can get very impatient easily. At least, he can keep himself occupied in the motorhome while we're on the road.

[NYCgrrl]

Re: Special needs kids..do you take them camping?

My oldest son was special needs (he's no longer with us) with severe developmental and some attendant physical problems. He went camping with us back when the immediate family bicycle camped with little changes in our itinerary. This was...back in the late '70's/early '80's prior to ADA. It was great and an overall experience we all enjoyed. I preferred that the campgrounds we went to were fairly close to certain amenities that others might not think of (full service hospital, near a public phone (no longer a necessity; etc) and a smooth road system was useful for me w/i the camp grounds. This meant wilderness camping wasn't happening but hey that was fine, not, because the parents dinna like the idea but it just didn't seem realistic.

I think it's important to ...know your surroundings, the person in question and just live.