Winter Wonder Camp: Growing Social Skills

December 21, 2017 BY Renee Limon

We hosted a mini Winter Wonder camp on December 20th for school-age kids working on social skills. Most kids were already out of school for winter break, and our proximity to the Washington Square Mall gave parents a kid-free morning for last-minute holiday shopping.

Our OT Christina Gagosian, and the newest SLP to join the clinic team, Alice Jeske, packed a full agenda for this fun-filled, half-day camp. The morning featured group crafts and games that targeted sensory regulation, self-calming, perspective taking, verbal communication, and awareness of body language and facial expressions. Each camper benefited from individual time with our OT and SLP, as well as lots of group time to practice the targeted social skills.

The kids had a blast! Activities included making snow slime, cup stacking, freeze dancing, preparing and giving Ugly Sweater speeches, and perhaps the sweetest task of all: making mini gingerbread houses out of graham crackers.

Making snow slime

Cup stacking

Freeze dancing!

Preparing and giving Ugly Sweater speeches

Graham cracker gingerbread houses

We finished up right at noon with awards:

We had so much fun with this great group of campers that we’ll be planning more camps in the coming year. Some parents have said they’d be interested in a younger version of a social skills camp, which we hope to put on later this year. Let us know if there are other camp ideas that interest you.