Autism Therapy: Ask Deb About Autism

Autism Therapy: Surfing Camp

I remember watching ESPN a year ago and being mesmerized by this amazing story.  A professional surfer and his wife starting a surfing “camp” for children with autism.  They saw, first hand, how surfing had helped their son Isaiah (who has autism) and parents Israel and Danielle Paskowitz wanted to share the gift.  Parents saw there was a great need in aquatics autism therapy.
 
Israel Paskowitz was a championship award winning surfer.  From the outside, they seemed like the perfect family.  But, their son Isaiah had sensory problems.  The water helped.  Israel gently put his son on a surfboard and Isaiah was a different child.  The stresses, the sensory issues melted away.  And a father bonded with his son.

Israel and Danielle decided they wanted to share this unique therapy with other children affected by autism. They began to host day camps at the beach where children and their families could be exposed to a completely new experience of surfing. A wonderful, fresh form of aquatics autism therapy.

Now in its ninth season, more than 1,000 children participate in “Surfer’s Healing” every year. At the start of the day, the ocean can cause meltdowns. Sensory overload is typical in autistic kids. What causes this?

 According to Israel (in an interview with CBS News):

 “It just works,” Israel says. “I think it’s just being in the water. It’s therapeutic being submersed in the water. You sniff it and you taste it and you hear it and you cram all that activity into one experience.”

“I get a lot of parents who ask ‘This isn’t dangerous, is it?’ Hell yeah, it’s dangerous,” says Israel. “Why can’t our kids do something dangerous? This is extreme special ed for goodness sake.”

Isaiah had an impact on my life as I watched ESPN that day.  I will never forget the expression on his face.  He looked so peaceful, so happy!  It was a look that all children with autism should have.  Aquatics autism therapy, whether it be swimming or something as “extreme” as surfing works!  Water is soothing and comforting to everyone, including children with autism.

As always, if you have any questions or topic suggestions for future blogs, please feel free to leave them here:

Best,

Deb

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