Yesterday, Nathan finally had a good day at camp. On Tuesday, the head of Special Services Support for the City of Ottawa was waiting for me with a delicate suggestion that Nathan might benefit from going to the special needs camps rather than the ordinary one. I pointed out that he'd been going to CoO camps since he was 3 years old and that we'd always been told he was too high functioning to even qualify for extra assistance with the counselors. She was quite taken aback and then we were actually able to sit down and brainstorm some solutions.
First, he felt asleep on Tuesday at lunch, which suggested he was tired. I put him to bed early Tuesday night and last night, which should help.
Second, he was complaining about the noise. Now, usually he's good to get his headphones himself, but I talked to him and suggested that he wear them for the afternoon free-for-all (over a hundred kids in an echoing gym, I'd find that overwhelmingly noisy, too).
Third, the staff will give him specific transition warnings. Not general ones shouted to the entire group. I think this is really the key point. Every time we've had trouble, it's because he hasn't been given transition warnings.
Three simple steps and it resulted in a good day. It's actually a little frightening to realize how thin the margin is between success and failure.
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