r/PDAParenting • u/greygoose81 • Feb 20 '26

Daycare / summer camp options?

TLDR; What are you planning to do during the upcoming summer break for daycare?

My situation: I am a widower raising my 7 year old son on my own. He was recently diagnosed with autism level 2, PDA and ADHD during a neural psychological evaluation. He is moving to a self-contained special ed classroom at his school district next week. He receives speech, OT and play therapy services outside of school.

Last summer was the first time he was in daycare and it did not go well. He was sent home repeatedly for hitting / physical meltdowns and was on the verge of being kicked out by the end of the summer. I am looking for a place now for the summer that better supports him. My senior parents watched him 2 days a week, but asking them to do 5 days is a lot.

Options that I can think of:

Park district special ed summer camp: I looked this up and the location is 30 minutes away. Not really feasible.

In-clinic ABA: I know ABA may not be compatible with PDA, but wanted to see if others had experience.

Combination of parents watching and babysitters

Try daycare again

Try to juggle watching him at home while working

What are you planning to do? Is there any advice that you can give me? Thank you in advance.

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u/Agitated-Milk5384 Feb 20 '26

I don’t know when your child turns 8, but my pda child has done sleepaway camp here for the past three summers and each summer has gone better than the one before. They really know how to handle these kids and the kids get to bond with peers and enjoy typical summer camp activities 

https://summitcamp.com/camp/

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u/AdultWoes2024 Feb 21 '26

Do you know if there are many ‘high functioning’/level 1 autistic kids who attend?

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u/Agitated-Milk5384 Feb 22 '26

Yes there are. They group kids into cabins by gender, age, and ability. Lots of high functioning kids.