Spotlight is an innovative drama-based social pragmatics program for students ages 9-22 with social-emotional challenges, including those diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, High Functioning Autism, ADHD, Anxiety, Depression and more.
Spotlight is clinically-based social pragmatics program which integrates theater games and dramatic training with highly motivating age-appropriate activities such as video games. These techniques contribute to a positive social reinforcement-based environment and strong relationships built amongst the students and staff which is reinforced by a high 3:1 student to staff ratio.
The Spotlight Summer Camp runs from June 27th - August 5th, 2011, Monday - Friday 9 am - 2 pm, at the First Baptist Church in Beverly, MA.
There will be no group on Monday, July 4th.
The cost of the 6 week program is $3800.
More About Camp
Spotlight is clinically-based social pragmatics program which integrates theater games and dramatic training with highly motivating age-appropriate activities such as video games. These techniques contribute to a positive social reinforcement-based environment and strong relationship built amongst the students and staff, which is reinforced by a high 3:1 student to staff ratio.
Spotlight students range in age from 9-22 years old. Although the program was originally designed for adolescents with Asperger's Syndrome, high functioning autism, and nonverbal learning disabilities, great success has been attained with students with a much wider range of diagnoses, including ADHD, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, PDD-NOS, OCD and autism. However, no diagnosis is necessary to participate in Spotlight, only an interest in developing greater social-emotional and non-verbal interaction skills.
Our summer camp runs for six weeks, Monday through Friday 9 am - 2 pm. In addition to the intensive practice of drama-based social skills, students in our summer program also work on writing and starring in a short film with fellow group members and participating in activities such as special interest clubs, swimming and weekly field trips or special events.
Each group consists of 9 students and 3 staff members and is based on a variety of factors including age, interests and developmental level.
In each session, the group is presented with a daily goal which informs the games and activities which are chosen for the day. During this time the group discusses the goal's importance and practical use. Each goal addresses a number of social pragmatic areas, including understanding others' perspectives, flexibility, self-regulation and reading nonverbal cues.
Our curriculum is also distinguished by the following features:
-Acting games as pragmatic training
-Use of strong age-appropriate motivators such as video games and special interests
-Positive social reinforcement & relationship building
Parents regularly receive an in-depth account of their child's progress in several social pragmatic areas addressed during group, areas of need, strengths and generalization of skills. In addition to being incredibly valuable to families, reports are written in a format that addresses areas mentioned specifically in IEPs and is usable by schools and other service providers.
Spotlight staff are chosen from a selective pool of widely varying candidates, including teachers, mental health counselors, social workers and even skilled actors. They are trained to focus on maintaining an 'inside-out' approach to imparting social skills. The staff builds on the foundation of social rules and norms by focusing on activities that facilitate experiential learning and interaction among group participants through the use of intrinsically motivating activities.
