Kids at STEM building structures
Summer Camp

Research-Based and Evidence-Informed Social Skills Growth

Camp Sequoia

Staff

At Camp Sequoia, we believe that the best and only way to approach helping our campers become the best versions of themselves is rooted in an inquiry-based, didactic approach. In 2020, we were selected as an innovative program and presented our methods and approaches at the International Conference on ADHD. We enjoy working with school systems, parents, teachers, physicians, therapists, social workers, and meaningful adults in the lives of our kids both during the summer and throughout the year. 

We endeavor each year to encapsulate the best research and approaches into our intentional social growth community during the summer, but also to share with the wider community so that others can learn and glean knowledge about specifically what works with our population. In recent years, we’ve presented our methods on frustration tolerance and the exceptional mind at the World Gifted Conference, we’ve proudly written for Planet Neurodivergent and worked with others, such as REST, as we introduce new methods into our community. We continually strive to provide a set of meaningful and transferrable tools, rooted in research, to empower our campers to become the best versions of themselves. 

We Kept Up the Hard Work During the Pandemic

Even in the midst of a global pandemic, 2020 brought Camp Sequoia’s work to the Oxford Forum, Attention Magazine, Planet Neurodivergent, and numerous school-based and community outreach events. We celebrate the synergy of camp-school partnerships and Dr. Lew, our Camp Sequoia psychologist, has provided strategies to school systems, social skills groups for kids, and guidance for our community with his thought leadership as a veteran clinician working with our population. Director Lux continues to speak on best practices to teachers, behavioral specialists and pull together ways to build a social and educational bridge with kids to provide a home where kids can thrive. Make no mistake, what happens at Camp Sequoia isn’t an accident. It isn’t magic. It is the hard work of professionals dedicated to the best research-based, evidence-informed mindset in a community of activities, facilities, and opportunities for our kids to make and retain lifelong friendships.

Recently, our leadership team connected with Camp Alumni. While, usually, this would be an in-person event over a weekend of memories, it was great to hear from our community via Zoom as well. Looking at the faces of teachers, graduate students, and gainfully employed citizens who are Camp Sequoia graduates we saw young adults who have found their place to take a meaningful role in society. Seeing outcomes in real life for our kids that have taken the research-based skills learned at Camp Sequoia as a springboard to the rest of their lives makes us proud to be an intentional community.

Research and Evidence Are Key to the Camp Sequoia Community 

One of the things that drew us to providing the Camp Sequoia experience was that we recognized (as does the research) that once a week in isolation instructional bubbles make it difficult for kids to transfer skills into everyday life. These difficulties are more pronounced with 2e (twice-exceptional) and any neurodivergent students. We can all understand the difficulty of getting back into a work routine after a long weekend (and we are adults). As teachers, we realized that having an environment that could reinforce skills in an immersive way rather than just at home, or just during an academic school day, would yield far greater potential results. This is the same reason why research supports language immersion rather than a piecemeal approach. We are always excited to talk specifics about our published work, methods, and the evidence-informed and research-based approaches that are the fabric of our community.