Ismerd meg röviden módszertanunk alapjait és vidd magaddal a saját osztályodba, munkahelyedre, otthonodba!
Illness and vulnerability
When a child or a teenager is diagnosed with a severe, chronic illness, their life fundamentally changes. Their everyday life becomes all about fighting with the disease, while natural things like playing and connecting with peers seem almost impossible.
Both children and adults have three main psychological needs:
- autonomy (I have a choice, I can influence what happens to me.),
- competence (I am able do something, I have the ability to do it.)
- belonging to somewhere (I am cared for, I am connected to others.)
These basic needs of the children arriving to the camp are compromised due to the illness and long hospital treatments/stay. Facing the disease involves many painful resignations: the children become vulnerable, unable to make age-appropriate decisions, and lose control over their own bodies. Many of them cannot go into a community, cannot continue their hobby, they cannot develop in a “normal” pace of life. Outside of their families, they don’t have the opportunity to feel that they belong anywhere.
These children develop their self-image based on other people’s external reactions to them. What they think of themselves will influence their decisions and reactions in certain situations. The more positive self-image they have, the more they believe in their ability to achieve their own goals.
This is why the supportive, reaffirming behaviour of the volunteers in Bátor Tábor is a unique experience for our campers due to which they can make positive changes in their lives.
The cycle of therapeutic recreation (TR), that is from challenge to self-confidence
The volunteers of Bátor Tábor, the Cimboras (meaning friend in Hungarian), are constantly giving their attention to the campers, turning to them with curiosity and expressing to them that they see what they are doing, and hear what they are saying. With this “eyewitness” approach they validate the children’s experiences, and motivate them to take on further challenges. Since the children can stay motivated if they are constantly confident that they are on the right track towards achieving their goals.
This seems like a very simple and obvious thing, but it has tremendous power! The so-called TR cycle is based on this active observation or conscious awareness.
Step zero: the safety! Therapeutic recreation is based on the emotional and physical safety. That is, campers know that they can fully count on the Cimboras in any situations, they can’t be hurt. If this security is not established, the TR cycle cannot start at all.
CHALLENGE: In our programs, children face a variety of challenges and with the help of the Cimboras they choose the ones they wish to accomplish. It is individual what campers consider as a challenge: making friends with others, climbing high, or speaking in front of a group. Nothing is mandatory in Bátor Tábor camp, each camper chooses their own challenges.
SUCCESS: When children overcome the challenges they choose for themselves, they feel success. If somebody witnesses, notices and confirms their success, this experience can have an even stronger and long-lasting impact.
REFLECTION: When campers are facing a challenge, enjoying the success, or discovering a new skill within themselves, volunteers reflect on these events. These appreciative, supportive, encouraging, praising, or constructive feedbacks during camp programmes are all of great importance. The success of therapeutic recreation depends, among other things, on whether the volunteers realise when to give a feedback and what feedback supports the kids most.
DISCOVERY: As a result of these experiences of success emphasised through feedbacks, children can discover abilities and competencies that they might have thought they have already lost or perhaps they have never been aware that they have a command of it. This discovery differs from individual to individual. As a result of the experiences in camp, children often discover something new about themselves beyond the gates of the camp, even weeks or months later.
Miracle beyond the comfort zone
At Bátor Tábor, we move campers out of their comfort zone with playful experiences, so they can realize that by overcoming their fears, they are able to face not only the tasks awaiting them during these adventures, but also their illness.
Every action, event that happens to us can be classified into a zone according to how challenging it is for us.
- The comfort zone includes activities and events that are part of our daily routine and we are in a completely calm state when doing any of these activities.
- In the challenge zone, we encounter things that are new to us for some reason. In such situations, we need to invest energy to solve the task, but if we succeed, we also gain a lot of energy.
- In the panic zone, things happening to us can mean such a great challenge that we get blocked, are drenched in sweat, or even we suddenly feel incapacitated – just like in a panic situation.
We all have our own zone map as we are all different. The boundaries of the zones can change, ideally they are constantly expanding: things that have become more and more familiar to us move from the challenge zone to the comfort zone.
As we gain experiences about ourselves and our abilities, the challenge zone conquers areas from the panic zone.
In order to leave the comfort zone, we must overcome our fears, the fear of failing or that others might make fun of us or we get ashamed. The fears of the children who come to us might be stronger than usual due to their previous experiences or the lack of experience, and it can be more difficult to overcome them. Motivation and curiosity can triumph over these fears in the camp thanks to the camp environment and programmes in one hand, and the care and attention of the volunteers on the other hand. The programmes are designed to include a variety of physical activities, individual and group challenges, so all of our campers can try themselves in a variety of situations, gaining a variety of experiences.
The participants consider the camp as a wonderland, and according to the feedback of their parents, a braver, more confident child steps out of the gate of the camp. This conscious method that embraces all the games and activities has been proven to help a seriously ill child to develop a more positive, sanguine vision of their future, to strengthen their self-confidence, and to develop their social skills.
All of this was confirmed by a study made by Yale University in 2014!
Try it in your class, on a trip, or at home! Let’s see what therapeutic recreation looks like in practice!