Frequently Asked Questions
Is Trip Camp a day or overnight travel camp?
Trip Camp is a day travel camp held in Margate, New Jersey. Families travel from across the country for their sons to participate in Trip Camp and enjoy what the Jersey Shore has to offer while their son is at camp. Margate is an upscale, family oriented beach town and a popular vacation spot for generations of families. Margate is approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes from downtown Philadelphia.
What’s a day like at camp?
There is no “typical day” at Trip Camp as you might find at a typical day camp. While our days are structured and active, our schedule changes each day as we do different activities each day.
Here’s a sample schedule:
9:30 AM Arrival/Make Lunch
9:30-10:00 AM Learning Time
10:00-11:30 Leave for Trip
12:00PM-2:00PM Tubing & Stand Up Paddleboarding
2:45-4:00 PM Beach
4:00-4:30 Snack and "future planning time" for tomorow's trip
4:30 Dismissal
What makes you different than the overnight ADHD camps I see advertised in ADHD magazines?
Overnight camps that market themselves as “ADHD camps” or “social skills camps” cannot be selective about profiles of campers they take because of their extremely high tuition. As a result, they will have campers with a wide range of neurological profiles. Additionally, these camps could not teach the skills we teach at Trip Camp as it would not make sense for the camp to make a tremendous financial investment in training staff who may only be with the camp for one summer.
Trip Camp is a small program specifically for boys who present with ADHD. We are not a special needs camp or a therapeutic camp and are not designed for campers who present with behavioral challenges. Through the admission process if we determine that a camper would be better served at a camp with a greater degree of support than we can provide we will provide you with a referral to a camp where we think your son can be successful.
What kind of results can we expect?
As with any experience, the more time your son spends at camp the more he will generalize the strategies and concepts we are teaching. Parents have remarked how their sons have developed a greater degree of self-confidence, independence and flexibility through attending Trip Camp. Most importantly, they comment on the fact that their son's felt connected to the other boys as they share similar profiles.
During Trip Camp we focus on foundational skills that form the basis of executive functioning and social thinking skill development.
I’ve searched all over the country and haven’t found anything like your camp. This is exactly what our son needs! Do you know of a camp like yours in (insert your city here)?
You have done your homework correctly! There is no camp like Trip Camp operating anywhere in the U.S.
Ryan Wexelblatt, Trip Camp Founder and Director has extensive training and education in teaching social cognitive skills and executive function skill-building strategies. The ADHD Dude methodology has attracted worldwide attention for it's forward-thinking, practical approach. Ryan is the one person in the world who focuses on teaching social skills to boys from a male perspective. Additionally, Ryan is one of the few males in the country to have received a Social Thinking Certificate of Completion for participating in the Social Thinking Clinical Training Program (Level 1). A School Social Worker and Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Ryan has a lifetime of camp experience and is the Director of ADHD Dude.
ADDitude Magazine created a new section on their website for Ryan’s content. Please check out the ADHD in Boys section to watch Ryan’s videos and the ADHD Dude Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Do you work on academic executive function skills during camp?
No. We do not believe in teaching academic executive function skills during the summer as their is no relevant context for them. Furthermore, the kids we’ve known who have attended academic executive function programs in the summer were very unhappy with sitting indoors all day working on “school stuff” during the summer. We focus on improving global executive function skills such as planning ahead, improving self-directed talk and situational awareness.
Who is not a good candidate for Trip Camp?
Boys who present with ADHD, anxiety with ADHD or learning differences are eligible to apply for admission to Trip Camp.
We do not offer a level of support for boys whom:
- are prone to physical/verbal aggression, emotional outbursts in school or in public
- prone to elopement when upset/angry
- attend a cyber school or are home schooled (not as a result of COVID)
- make threats of aggression towards teachers or classmates
- require 1:1 support in school or are in a self-contained behavioral classroom for the majority of the school day
- are diagnosed with Asperger’s or higher-functioning autism
- have significant anxiety that manifests as negativity/outbursts when in a group setting
- present with significant difficulty being part of a similar-age peer group in school or outside of school
Additionally, Trip Camp is not a good fit for parents who have separation anxiety from their son as we do not permit campers to have mobile devices at camp.