Camp is therapy for kids with ADHD

His camp counselors call it "not using materials appropriately." But that doesn't begin to describe the frantic way a 10-year-old boy is pulling up a patch of lawn.

It's his third week at a summer camp designed specifically for children with ADHD, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and like most of the other kids sitting in a circle this morning, he's wiggly and distracted. He's the kind of child who might suddenly turn to you and ask a steady stream of questions: Do you know what hair is made of? Do you know that Dove doesn't leave a residue on your skin? Are you married? Sitting in the shade of a playing field on Salt Lake's east bench, waiting for a game of soccer to begin, he wants to reach out in all directions and yank at the grass.

Life for a boy like this can be a constant barrage of negative feedback: Don't touch that! Stop asking so many questions! You're not paying attention! In fact, says ADHD expert William Pelham, a typical kid with the disorder will have a staggering half-million negative interactions a year.

Pelham is the founder of the Children's Summer Treatment Program, a therapeutic camp for children with ADHD. The program is now nearly 3 decades old and operates in seven states plus Japan, but this summer is its debut in Utah. The camp uses an elaborate point system to monitor and modify behavior while kids play sports, do schoolwork or simply stand in line.

Like ADHD itself, watching the camp in action is pretty exhausting. But as the seven-week program draws to a close, parents report they're seeing positive changes in their children.

Not all ADHD alike

Some children are fidgety, some defiant, some dreamy. Here's how 11-year-old Ryan describes what it's like for him: "I annoy everyone because I talk all the time." He's a slight, articulate, sometimes goofy child who is eager to discuss the novel he's writing about a man "who is well over 50."

Ryan's hyperactivity wears other children out, his mother says, so he has often been ostracized. At school he gets into trouble for not doing what the teacher asks. When he played on a soccer team he spent too much time staring at the sky or looking for bugs; the parent of another teammate called him a loser.

But at camp, for the first time in his life, there are 10 other kids with ADHD. "I don't feel alone," he says. At camp, finally, he feels like a success. Almost every day this summer he has won an award for High Point Kid, Best Social Skills or Best Sport. And he's doing great at soccer.