Expert: Catherine Ridenour - 8/12/2010

Question
Recently, my son was in a 1/2 day Lego camp with a child (unbeknownst to the camp) who has autism. The only reason I and the camp know this is because the grandparent told the camp teachers on the last day of camp, after being called to camp to pick Typer up (grandparent showed up 2 hours after he was called).He was called to pick up "Tyler" because Tyler was telling the teachers he would shoot them, pushed kids, repeatedly said he was "aggitated", made campers cry & empty their pockets out, told my son he was going to "rip his head off", pushed/moved tables with other Lego forms on it & screamed at the teachers .....there were only 18 kids in this Lego camp. (The caregiver/grandparent never told the camp he had autism.  Only that he was ADHD on the enrollement form. The camp would have never accepted him had they know he was autistic b/c they are not equipped to handle it.) With that information in hand, my question is: Is the caregiver at fault for not telling the camp Tyler had autism (thus putting both Tyler & the other campers in danger b/c Tyler has violent tendencies as he showed in camp), or, is it ok to put Tyler into camps without giving the camp knowledge that he is autistic? Please help me to understand what to expect in the future. Thanks, Tracey

Answer
Hi Kathryn,

This is a bit beyond my scope. I will give you my opinion, however.

I think that the parent or guardian of any child who has social problems, be they from autism or other sources, should disclose this to any camp, daycare, school or other venue where other children will be exposed to potentially violent or anti-social behavior.

You don't mention how old these kids are, but beyond the preschool years, it should be a reasonable expectation that the attendees of a day camp are in fairly good control of their behavior.

I suspect that the grandparent was hoping things would go well and the boy would have a good experience and they would get a break. Sadly, this is not a realistic expectation for most autistic children.

I'm sorry your son had his day camp ruined in this fashion. A guardian or aide could have, and should have, attended with the boy to control his behavior and remove him as soon as problems arose. I do not support a blanket ban on having autistic spectrum kids at such events. Many do quite well with proper support.

Best wishes,
Catherine