Areas of Study: 1) Program and Policy Development and 2) Leadership
Area of Practice: Children and Youth
Population: Children with special needs
Project Site
The site for this project was Friendship Circle of Michigan. This site is located in West Bloomfield, MI and provides various programs for children with special needs and their families.
Project Vision
To increase inclusivity and create a welcoming environment for individuals with special needs.
Project Mission
To enhance programming at Friendship Circle to better serve individuals with special needs.
Expert Mentor
Shelby Morrow, LMSW
Educational Director, Friendship Circle of Michigan
Faculty Mentor
Dr. Jamesdean Visley, OTD, OTR/L, ATP, ECHM
Assistant Professor, Huntington University
Prior to my capstone project, I also completed a literature review.
Life skills programs are beneficial to children with disabilities and can be successful in teaching life skills (Kiraly-Alvarez, 2017; Robison et al., 2020).
Life skills programs can also help to increase social skills in adolescents with disabilities (Behroz-Sarcheshmeh et al., 2017).
Summer camp programs are a great place to address goals or problem behaviors for children with disabilities (Koegel et al., 2019; Mitchell et al., 2015; Zwicker et al., 2015).
Summer camps were also found to help increase social skills for children with disabilities (Flynn et al., 2019).
About the Programs
I had the opportunity to work on the Lessons for Life and summer camp programs.
The Lessons for Life program runs through school field trips. Schools bring classes to the village in Friendship Circle. There, students are able to practice basic life skills while exploring.
The summer camp program has children's and adult division. Day camp lasts for six weeks and overnight camp is held for two weeks.
Watch the video below to see all the options students have when they come to the village.
Throughout my capstone experience, I was able to enhance the programs at Friendship Circle of Michigan by creating new curriculum or adding to existing curriculum.
For the Lessons for Life program, I wrote five new lesson plans to be utilized by schools in the future on their trips to the village.
I also created a survey for teachers to fill out about their experience with Lessons for Life. This survey provided information on which lessons worked best for their students and ways they thought the program could improve.
For the summer camp program, I created 45 lesson plans to be utilized throughout the summer. Many of the lesson plans included picture instructions for campers to be able to complete the activities independently.
I also created an outline of 46 activities created for the summer camp. This outline categorized the activities into arts and crafts, learning, or gym activities.
During my project, I had the opportunity to complete the Mindful Path to Leadership Series (Modules 1-3) and receive the Mindful Path to Leadership Level I Foundations badge through the American Occupational Therapy Association.
In addition to the above deliverables, I completed the Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Training through the Crisis Prevention Institute and Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Training through Ministry Safe.
I had the opportunity to work as a camp counselor for a few weeks of the day camp during my project. I was able to gain many hours of hands-on experience working with campers with various disabilities.
I also organized for a couple of outside organizations to come in to provide activities for the campers during day camp. These activities included gardening with a local greenhouse, Zumba, a visit with a fire truck, and safety training with a fellow capstone student, Emily Costello.
All the materials I made will be available to Friendship Circle of Michigan to use with future participants. The main focus throughout the materials was to provide fun activities that actually teach participants something. The activities were designed to help participants improve life skills, as well as practice fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and socialization. Basically, this project was designed to incorporate aspects of occupational therapy into fun activities.
I plan to work with the pediatric population while continuing to pursue professional growth.
Contact information:
luddym@huntington.edu
References
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2020). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process (4th ed.). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 74(Suppl. 2). https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2020.74S2001
Behroz-Sarcheshmeh, S., Karimi, M., Mahmoudi, F., Shaghaghi, P., & Jalil-Abkenar, S. S. (2017). Effect of training life skills on social skills of high school students with intellectual disabilities. Practice in Clinical Psychology, 5(3), 177-186. https://doi.org/10.18869/acadpub.jpcp.5.3.177
Flynn, R. M., Ricker, A. A., Dolezal, C., Kunin, M., & Mellins, C. A. (2019). Residential summer camp for youth with special needs: A longitudinal approach to investigating differences in social skills. Children and Youth Services Review, 96, 354-363. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.10.036
Fort, M., Lundberg, N., Zabriskie, R., Eggett, D., Prater, M. A., & Barney, K. (2017). Adolescent summer camp volunteers’ attitudes toward peers with disabilities. Leisure Sciences: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 39(3), 277-294. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2016.1171740
Friendship Circle. (n.d.). About friendship circle. https://www.friendshipcircle.org/about/
Günal, A., Bumin, G., & Huri, M. (2019). The effects of motor and cognitive impairments on daily living activities and quality of life in children with autism. Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools & Early Intervention, 12(4), 444–454. https://doi.org/10.1080/19411243.2019.1604286
King, G., Curran, C. J., & McPherson, A. (2013). A four-part ecological model of community-focused therapeutic recreation and life skills services for children and youth with disabilities. Child: Care, Health & Development, 39(3), 325–336. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2214.2012.01390.x
Kiraly-Alvarez, A. F. (2017). Developing a life skills program to address functional needs of middle school students with disabilities. OT Practice, 2–4.
Koegel, L. K., Glugatch, L. B., Koegel, R. L., & Castellon, F. A. (2019). Targeting IEP social goals for children with autism in an inclusive summer camp. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, 49(6), 2426–2436. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-03992-4
Lorenzo, T., McKinney, V., Bam, A., Sigenu, V., & Sompeta, S. (2019). Mapping participation of disabled youth in sport and other free-time activities to facilitate their livelihoods development. The British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 82(2), 80–89. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308022618817281
Mitchell, E., Mrug, S., Patterson, C., Bailey, K., & Bart Hodgens, J. (2015). Summer treatment program improves behavior of children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, 45(8), 2295–2310. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2241-4
Robison, M. A., Mann, T. B., & Ingvarsson, E. T. (2020). Life skills instruction for children with developmental disabilities. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 53(1), 431–448. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.602
Rosenberg, L., Bart, O., Ratzon, N., & Jarus, T. (2013). Personal and environmental factors predict participation of children with and without mild developmental disabilities. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 22(5), 658–671. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-012-9619-8
Smart, E., Aulakh, A., McDougall, C., Rigby, P., & King, G. (2017). Optimizing engagement in goal pursuit with youth with physical disabilities attending life skills and transition programs: an exploratory study. Disability & Rehabilitation, 39(21), 2029–2038. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2016.1215558
Zwicker, J. G., Rehal, H., Sodhi, S., Karkling, M., Paul, A., Hilliard, M., & Jarus, T. (2015). Effectiveness of a summer camp intervention for children with developmental coordination disorder. Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics, 35(2), 163–177. https://doi.org/10.3109/01942638.2014.957431