Camp Alec

1 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:12,074 2 00:01:57,117 --> 00:01:59,036 Time for wake up calls. 3 00:02:00,454 --> 00:02:04,750 Good morning, campers! This is Gina. 4 00:02:04,958 --> 00:02:08,378 And this is Tina, with your morning announcements. 5 00:02:08,629 --> 00:02:13,175 Today's thought, if at first you don't succeed... 6 00:02:13,717 --> 00:02:16,470 Don't try skydiving. 7 00:02:22,184 --> 00:02:25,020 <i>Some of our campers do not have the language yet</i> 8 00:02:25,187 --> 00:02:29,191 to put into complete sentences what it is they need. 9 00:02:29,608 --> 00:02:32,819 <i>And they're trusting us to care for them.</i> 10 00:02:33,862 --> 00:02:36,239 They are some of the bravest kids in the world. 11 00:02:46,958 --> 00:02:51,380 <i>Our campers all use speech-generating devices as their voices.</i> 12 00:02:51,880 --> 00:02:54,424 <i> Nickel. Five cent.</i> 13 00:02:58,595 --> 00:02:59,805 Some of them sign. 14 00:02:59,888 --> 00:03:02,724 Some of them point and gesture and use their bodies. 15 00:03:03,850 --> 00:03:06,561 <i>They've figured out all kinds of different ways to talk</i> 16 00:03:07,270 --> 00:03:09,231 <i>and to have relationships with people.</i> 17 00:03:11,817 --> 00:03:12,818 <i>Near.</i> 18 00:03:13,694 --> 00:03:14,695 <i>At.</i> 19 00:03:17,322 --> 00:03:18,657 <i>Dinner.</i> 20 00:03:31,962 --> 00:03:32,963 <i>My...</i> 21 00:03:35,632 --> 00:03:36,633 <i>name...</i> 22 00:03:37,467 --> 00:03:38,468 <i>is...</i> 23 00:03:40,303 --> 00:03:41,346 <i>Katie.</i> 24 00:03:52,941 --> 00:03:54,609 Good morning, Katie. 25 00:03:54,776 --> 00:03:56,695 Good morning. 26 00:03:57,320 --> 00:03:58,321 <i>Of.</i> 27 00:04:06,288 --> 00:04:11,293 <i>Most of our kids go to school with neurotypical kids every day.</i> 28 00:04:17,424 --> 00:04:20,051 <i>Here, they're like everybody else.</i> 29 00:04:31,772 --> 00:04:34,107 Oh, awesome. 30 00:05:01,635 --> 00:05:04,679 There are a lot of challenges in using AAC devices. 31 00:05:05,388 --> 00:05:07,182 <i>Batteries run low.</i> 32 00:05:07,474 --> 00:05:08,475 <i>They die.</i> 33 00:05:09,976 --> 00:05:11,895 <i>It takes a lot of practice.</i> 34 00:05:13,522 --> 00:05:17,025 <i>Everybody around you needs to use that AAC device.</i> 35 00:05:21,238 --> 00:05:23,782 <i>Message window. Message window.</i> 36 00:05:24,157 --> 00:05:26,910 - It's scanning. <i>- Make questions.</i> 37 00:05:28,411 --> 00:05:29,621 <i>Message window.</i> 38 00:05:30,372 --> 00:05:33,041 <i>Message window. Message window.</i> 39 00:05:43,009 --> 00:05:45,804 She's actually using what we call proximity switches at the moment, 40 00:05:45,971 --> 00:05:48,473 so they're close to her. When she moves her head towards them, 41 00:05:48,557 --> 00:05:51,017 they pick up that movement and that's what triggers them off. 42 00:05:51,434 --> 00:05:54,080 So one moves the boxes, and then when she gets to the row she wants, 43 00:05:54,104 --> 00:05:56,690 she uses the other side and that's like a selector. 44 00:05:57,190 --> 00:05:59,510 - It's pretty hard work. <i>- Message window.</i> 45 00:06:00,277 --> 00:06:01,653 <i>Message window.</i> 46 00:06:03,655 --> 00:06:05,282 <i>Patience is really important.</i> 47 00:06:06,449 --> 00:06:10,078 <i>I can't just go up to a camper and say,</i> 48 00:06:10,161 --> 00:06:12,080 "Hey, tell me what you did last night." 49 00:06:12,873 --> 00:06:15,166 <i>Campers need to think about what they wanna say,</i> 50 00:06:15,542 --> 00:06:16,668 <i>and then they build it.</i> 51 00:06:16,793 --> 00:06:17,794 <i>D...</i> 52 00:06:18,670 --> 00:06:19,671 <i>E...</i> 53 00:06:21,798 --> 00:06:22,883 <i>V...</i> 54 00:06:23,049 --> 00:06:25,051 We want them to know that their voices are heard. 55 00:06:26,094 --> 00:06:27,414 You gotta say it. 56 00:06:29,264 --> 00:06:30,432 <i>Toothpaste.</i> 57 00:06:30,557 --> 00:06:32,743 Can you turn your volume up a little bit, bud? 58 00:06:32,767 --> 00:06:33,894 Toothpaste? 59 00:06:34,895 --> 00:06:40,066 Toothpaste was in the Oreos? 60 00:07:13,141 --> 00:07:17,812 <i>I think we tend to underestimate kids with complex bodies.</i> 61 00:07:21,066 --> 00:07:24,986 <i>We have amazingly creative, smart kids.</i> 62 00:07:26,154 --> 00:07:28,490 <i>And we have kids that struggle, too.</i> 63 00:07:31,493 --> 00:07:33,161 <i>They're just normal kids.</i> 64 00:07:46,007 --> 00:07:49,803 The core focus of camp is the literacy portion of camp, 65 00:07:50,178 --> 00:07:54,975 <i>based on the work of doctors Karen Erickson and David Koppenhaver.</i> 66 00:07:56,184 --> 00:07:58,520 Think about what the poodle look like. 67 00:07:59,354 --> 00:08:00,730 The poodle looks small. 68 00:08:03,233 --> 00:08:04,651 The poodle look fluffy. 69 00:08:06,277 --> 00:08:07,421 <i>We started Camp ALEC</i> 70 00:08:07,445 --> 00:08:09,382 <i>'cause we knew there was this group of kids out there</i> 71 00:08:09,406 --> 00:08:12,993 who had all kinds of potential that wasn't being tapped 72 00:08:13,076 --> 00:08:14,869 in a typical school environment. 73 00:08:18,164 --> 00:08:20,709 <i>If you use a computer to talk to the world,</i> 74 00:08:21,001 --> 00:08:24,504 <i>the only way you're ever gonna be able to say everything you want to say,</i> 75 00:08:24,629 --> 00:08:26,381 <i>is if I teach you how to spell.</i> 76 00:08:27,674 --> 00:08:31,386 <i>Camp allows us to gather teachers, speech language pathologists,</i> 77 00:08:31,469 --> 00:08:34,431 and other kinds of therapists who really value 78 00:08:34,514 --> 00:08:37,100 what the gifts and talents are that these kids have. 79 00:08:41,021 --> 00:08:44,649 Leo, do you have a guess of an animal before we get a clue? 80 00:08:46,609 --> 00:08:48,754 - A dog? - Oh. Leo's guessing a dog. 81 00:08:48,778 --> 00:08:51,018 - All right, Denise. - Good guess. 82 00:08:55,076 --> 00:08:58,371 I'm half duck and half otter? 83 00:09:02,834 --> 00:09:05,128 Yes or no, do you think it's a velociraptor? 84 00:09:05,378 --> 00:09:08,006 Yeah? Is that our guess? Velociraptor? 85 00:09:08,381 --> 00:09:11,134 All right. Let's see if we're right. Hailey, what is it? 86 00:09:17,724 --> 00:09:19,577 - A platypus. - Oh, a platypus? 87 00:09:19,601 --> 00:09:21,436 Have you ever heard of a platypus? 88 00:09:21,519 --> 00:09:23,980 Do you guys wanna see a video of a platypus? 89 00:09:24,731 --> 00:09:27,984 - Hailey does. - Hailey loves her animals. 90 00:09:28,151 --> 00:09:31,279 This is called platypus, the world's strangest animal. 91 00:09:59,432 --> 00:10:02,811 <i>Hailey is a rock star in terms of how she communicates.</i> 92 00:10:03,937 --> 00:10:06,981 <i>She will work to get that message across,</i> 93 00:10:07,690 --> 00:10:09,567 <i>and I love that about her.</i> 94 00:10:20,954 --> 00:10:22,874 One of the biggest challenges in learning to read 95 00:10:22,914 --> 00:10:24,707 when you don't have the ability to speak 96 00:10:24,874 --> 00:10:27,418 <i>is developing what we call an inner voice.</i> 97 00:10:29,671 --> 00:10:31,589 We think linguistically while we're reading. 98 00:10:32,340 --> 00:10:36,719 <i>The ability to do that happens some time developmentally during childhood.</i> 99 00:10:38,179 --> 00:10:41,057 <i>For the campers who come here, they never had that ability,</i> 100 00:10:41,641 --> 00:10:44,477 and so one of our biggest challenges is helping them learn 101 00:10:44,561 --> 00:10:46,604 <i>to use that inner speech.</i> 102 00:10:57,782 --> 00:10:58,783 Okay. 103 00:11:04,539 --> 00:11:06,833 Oh, that's about it. 104 00:11:25,268 --> 00:11:26,686 Can we say goodnight? 105 00:11:29,689 --> 00:11:31,524 Goodnight, Emily. 106 00:11:32,192 --> 00:11:33,860 Goodnight, Katie. 107 00:11:34,819 --> 00:11:36,321 Goodnight, Lily. 108 00:11:37,322 --> 00:11:38,573 Goodnight, Hailey. 109 00:11:39,532 --> 00:11:40,867 Sweet dreams. 110 00:11:54,589 --> 00:11:57,342 <i>As a speech language pathologist and as a mom,</i> 111 00:11:57,508 --> 00:11:59,802 I don't like to use the word non-verbal. 112 00:12:00,511 --> 00:12:02,472 <i>I prefer non-speaking.</i> 113 00:12:05,225 --> 00:12:09,437 <i>My son, Mateo, has apraxia and dysarthria.</i> 114 00:12:10,396 --> 00:12:13,149 It's difficult for him to communicate verbally. 115 00:12:22,075 --> 00:12:25,578 He's more persistent and hardworking than anybody I know. 116 00:12:27,705 --> 00:12:30,708 I love you, too. You're welcome. 117 00:12:34,462 --> 00:12:38,716 <i>At the end of the day, I just want Mateo to be comfortable with who he is.</i> 118 00:12:39,759 --> 00:12:43,304 <i>I want him to have all the same opportunities as everybody else.</i> 119 00:13:16,004 --> 00:13:20,508 Okay. So, Alec, uh, was my son. 120 00:13:21,843 --> 00:13:25,388 <i>He used a power-wheelchair to drive, controlled by a head switch.</i> 121 00:13:27,265 --> 00:13:30,810 <i>He'd have sweat pouring down his face to try to get his point across.</i> 122 00:13:32,729 --> 00:13:35,940 And he passed away at the age of 15. 123 00:13:37,150 --> 00:13:41,112 And so, because it was our dream to get him to read and write... 124 00:13:42,822 --> 00:13:45,533 <i>we began this camp in his name.</i> 125 00:14:17,732 --> 00:14:21,819 We know that at camp, we can't change a child's literacy life 126 00:14:21,903 --> 00:14:23,988 during this five or six days that they're here. 127 00:14:24,364 --> 00:14:25,782 <i>But what the kids leave with,</i> 128 00:14:25,865 --> 00:14:28,534 <i>is a really carefully thought through plan.</i> 129 00:14:29,077 --> 00:14:31,037 <i>Year after year, we see campers come back</i> 130 00:14:31,162 --> 00:14:34,749 who it's really clear that people took those recommendations to heart. 131 00:14:35,333 --> 00:14:38,086 <i>We see kids who, at ten and twelve, couldn't read at all,</i> 132 00:14:38,169 --> 00:14:41,172 who at 14 and 15, are reading and writing 133 00:14:41,297 --> 00:14:43,508 <i>in all kinds of sophisticated ways.</i> 134 00:15:09,951 --> 00:15:15,039 <i>Our kids have that right to be able to live and work</i> 135 00:15:15,123 --> 00:15:19,085 <i>and love in their community, regardless of how they communicate</i> 136 00:15:19,168 --> 00:15:20,837 <i>or how they move their bodies.</i> 137 00:15:21,796 --> 00:15:25,800 Our kids' voices should be no less powerful than anybody else's. 138 00:15:42,483 --> 00:15:44,902 <i>This camp has allowed me</i> 139 00:15:44,986 --> 00:15:49,907 <i>to stay in the world of kids like Alec.</i> 140 00:15:51,701 --> 00:15:53,870 It's given me a purpose again, 141 00:15:54,287 --> 00:15:57,915 <i>if not for my own son, then for other children.</i> 142 00:16:00,084 --> 00:16:02,545 I believe the work we do here is life-changing... 143 00:16:06,340 --> 00:16:09,760 <i>because they know that if you take the time...</i> 144 00:16:10,970 --> 00:16:12,680 <i>their voice will be heard.</i> 144 00:16:13,305 --> 00:17:13,728 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm