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The NYU Summer Program for Kids (SPK), established in 1997, is an eight-week therapeutic clinical program devoted exclusively to children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) who are between the ages of seven to eleven years old. The 2009 program lasts from Monday, June 29 - Friday, August 21. The program, which is based on a landmark study funded by the NIMH, is specifically designed to improve children�s social behavior; friendship skills; academic competence; problem-solving skills; self-esteem; classroom behavior; sports competence; rule following; home behavior; and anger control. Parents are also taught specialized parenting skills to enhance parent-child relations. All counselors in the program are upper classmen in college or graduate students. The counselor to child ratio is one counselor to every one to two children. All counselors must participate and pass an extensive behavioral therapy training program in June before the start of camp. In addition, counselors are supervised by clinical psychologists, which is essential to providing such a highly individualized program tailored to each child�s specific needs and goals. SPK is located on the campus of the SUNY Maritime College in the Bronx. The program serves 50-55 children. In past summers, children and their families came to us from as far as Hong Kong and Japan. This past summer, the NYU Summer Program for Kids appeared in a feature length story in the New York Times (September 12, 2008), Westchester, Long Island, Connecticut, New Jersey editions and NY Times on line. The article, For Hyperactive Children, a Special Place, tells the story of one particular child, Jesse Federbush, and the progress he has made since attending our eight-week program.
The NYU Summer Program for Kids is currently the only evidence-based summer program in the New York metropolitan area to treat children with ADHD and related disorders. SPK includes academic and recreational programming, with behavior modification procedures used to consistently reinforce skills throughout the course of each day.
A typical morning at SPK has children focusing on academics, forty-five minutes using and learning about computers, and working on arts and crafts. Using instructive, cooperative, and peer educational methods, licensed teachers target academic performance and improved behavioral functioning. In the afternoon, specialty instructors lead structured enrichment activities that build on the children�s talents in areas such as swimming and other physical activities. This regulated instruction helps teach children with ADHD the skills in which they are typically deficient, such as paying attention, organization, following directions, persevering and cooperation.
The NYU Summer Program for Kids is located in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx on the beautiful campus of SUNY Maritime College in historic Fort Schuyler. Maritime College is a modern, well-maintained, secure facility with lovely grounds in a residential setting. Maritime�s outdoor playing fields, indoor heated swimming pool, and indoor gymnasium provide excellent recreational facilities for our full sports program.
