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| A Life Skills camp at 105 Gibson Centre, Markham, Ontario |
Along with a few parents, I volunteered to help started this camp because I saw first hand the amount of care, hard work and efforts that parents have to put forth to look after their children 24/7.
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| Teaching students how to organize |
With the support from 105 Gibson Centre, and Given Life Special Needs Services, we started planning and organizing a Life Skills camp so that parents of these teens could have a small break in the summer while their children could learn some practical skills.
Though I have been involved in education for young people in the Toronto public school system for years, I did not teach autistic students. I learned a lot the past weeks observing and learning another way of motivating students with special needs.
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| Rewards used to motivate students with special needs |
It is not easy for autistic children to follow instructions and they need a lot of rewards and motivation.
In this camp, I noticed that the instructors used three types of reward systems:
1. Token system - Each student is rewarded a token every time he/ she follows an instruction or displays desirable behaviour. The instructor uses real money, 5 cents and 10 cents as they are trying to teach students real life skills.
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| Cheetos - was used to reward students' good behaviour |
2. Favourite Food - a small piece of food is given for desirable behaviour each time.
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| Each time the student performs the task, he receives a check mark |
3. Token Board - Some autistic children need visual cues and immediate feedback and reminders, therefore the instructor carries a token board with a certain number of underlined spaces drawn on the board.
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| Motivating the student with the Token Board |
When doing an activity, the student will receive a check mark from the instructor after each successful attempt.
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| After receiving three checks on the Token Board, student is rewarded. |
Looking at the number of blank underlined spaces on the board, the student would know how many times he/ she is expected to perform the task.
With this student, after the student has attempted the task three times and earning three check marks, he earns a piece of cheetso (or their favourite food)!
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| Learning to sort things at the Life Skills Camp |
This positive reward system enables the instructors to help students with special needs to learn practical skills.
I could see that some of our campers are really learning a lot in this camp.
It takes a lot of commitment, resources and efforts to run a camp like this. I sincerely hope that we would be able to continue and expand the Life Skills camp next year!
R.T.
105 Gibson Centre
Markham, Ontario
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