CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A free four-day summer learning camp is being offered to non-verbal and autistic students this week at the Kanawha County Public Library in downtown Charleston.
A group of teachers from Ruffner Elementary School planned the camp for their students as a way to help them better expand their use of communication.
The camp, which is not affiliated with Kanawha County Schools, started Tuesday. It runs through Friday.
Alexa Kirkwood, an autism teacher at Ruffner, told MetroNews they saw a need for students who need extra attention throughout the summer months when they’re out of school.
“A lot of our students don’t always have the opportunity to participate in a camp because a lot of people who work those things don’t have the resources and the knowledge that we do,” she said. “We wanted make something fun and something that they socialize, see their friends over the summer but also work on those communication skills.”
Every day of the camp the teachers provide the students with “core words” for them to use. On Tuesday, those cord words were “want” and “eat.” The students practiced using those words during a trip to Ellen’s Ice Cream on Capitol Street.
“Today we’re doing ‘want’ and ‘eat’ because we all ‘want’ to go ‘eat’ ice cream,” Kirkwood said.
Non-communicative students from Ruffner Elementary are here at the @KanawhaLibrary in Charleston for a free 4-day summer camp learning camp. Autism teachers planned the event and showed @WVMetroNews @580WCHS what it’s all about. pic.twitter.com/LLWSuy1Lye
— Carrie Hodousek (@CarrieHodousek) July 11, 2023
Other activates include crafts and story time. Social skills are also practiced by using their voices.
Some students who cannot speak clearly, use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices that helps with speech or language impairment.
“This is used in schools every day and in life. This is their form of communication at home, in the bathroom, any and everywhere they go they take their communication devices,” Michelle Robinson, a speech pathologist at Ruffner, explained.
Morgan Goodall, another autism teacher at Ruffner, said the library was a good place to hold this week’s camp because it’s free and there’s a lot of resources. She said it’s been something they’ve been wanting to do here in West Virginia.
“A lot of other states do this and we haven’t seen West Virginia have one. That was really our goal was to bring more resources to West Virginia,” she said.
Goodall said not only does she strive to teach her students new lessons, she’s also learning from them every day.
“It’s very rewarding because each child communicates differently and I like learning more about different ways to communicate,” she said.