CHAMP Camp and D.C.

Alright my sweet, neglected blog readers.   It is time for me to tell you about our road trip and CHAMP camp in Washington, D.C.

Granny, C and I hit the road early Sunday morning and stopped in Youngstown to enjoy a huge metropark with a fun children's garden and playground.  We spent the night at the Pittsburgh airport and had an awesome room, we could watch the planes land from our window.

We arrived in D.C. the next afternoon.  There are wacky D.C. roads  that change direction based on the time of day.  They made it tricky for us, but we got there.  We stopped by camp before checking into our hotel.  I was not a fan of driving in D.C.  Don't do it!

Camp started Tuesday morning.  We had a few hurdles immediately. C did not connect well with her clinician.  The clinicians were trained and using DTTC (Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing).  In short, if the child can not produce a sound you provide a physical facial cue to help.  "Open" was a one of our target words.  So, her clinician had container after container full of toys.  For "O" she would lightly squeeze the chin, "P" your hand pops off the lips, "N" is one finger on the side of the nose.  C did not enjoy having this woman up in her face at all.

The professor who planned and facilitated camp was amazing.  I can not say enough great things about Jodi Kumar.  She is an expert in apraxia and is a resource we are so thankful to have.  She worked with all the parents and clinicians to provide personalized help.

While C was struggling with her wonderful and patient clinician Granny and I were observing, in parent discussions, or in learning sessions with experts on apraxia and sensory processing.  The current research on apraxia was shared and discussed.  Oral motor exercises have been proven ineffective, you should only practice words.  Repetition, repetition, repetition.  Approximations are discouraged as you will practice the approximation as many times as you will eventually have to practice the actual word to learn the motor plan.  This information was frustrating as it is most of what we have done for the past few years.


Camp ran 8:45 to 1pm daily.  After camp we would grab lunch and then play.  We went to the National Zoo and even got to see panda bears eat dinner up close.  We checked out the monuments and exhausted ourselves on the 90+ day.  C had her first Metro ride and cab ride.  She was a stellar traveler, listener, communicator, and all around awesome vacationer when we were not at camp.

Camp was a 15 minute walk from our wonderful hotel, the Melrose.  Everyone at the hotel went above and beyond to make our stay great.      It was a 10 minute walk to Georgetown, where we found great food most nights.   There were motorcades, airplanes, helicopters, buses, trains, and construction every day on our walks.

Let's talk food.  We had phenomenal stone fire pizza, pasta, Mediterranean, burgers, sandwiches, salads... handmade salted caramel ice cream...mango and brie waffles...Seriously, it was glorious.

Throughout the week our clinician and Jodi worked on different techniques to engage C.  We had video chatted a few times prior and had reserved the "sensory room" for one session each day based on these discussions.  They wound up spending most of their time in the "sensory room".  C responded and participated more and they started to have fun.  They only problem was there was no observation in that room.  The treatment rooms we small rooms in a row with a long skinny room next to them.  The parents watch from the skinny room with headphones through a mirror.  So, we were not able to observe much after day one.


Corinne barely touched her talker at camp, but did a good job using it to request things out and about.  She did not want to participate in graduation and we wound up leaving without saying goodbye to all the other wonderful families because she was just done.

The day of graduation we hit the road for Cleveland.  It should have been a 6 hour drive and we left around 2.  Since it was a Friday in D.C. the traffic was already horrific (did I mention I hated driving there?).  It took us 3 hours to get out of D.C.  and we arrived just before 11 at the Glidden House.

Glidden House is a mansion from 1910 on the campus of Case Western.  It was beautiful.  We crashed and then awoke to a huge complimentary breakfast.  We choose this hotel because it is next door to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens.  We checked out the frogs,  the trains, the gardens, and the rose competition before it was time to get back in the car.

When I asked C to get back in the car she said "NO".  When I asked if she wanted to go see daddy she opened her door, jumped in her seat and said "go".

The final leg of the drive was uneventful and we were home before dinner.  We missed Daddy / Kevin like crazy and it was so nice to be home!