A freckle-faced redhead of about 12 steps forward.

“Hi. My name is Chris,” he says, staring down at his feet.

Chris and his friends have been talking about how to deal with teasing. Someone asks what he has learned.

He responds with enthusiasm: “If someone says something bad about my shirt, I can just say something lighthearted like, ‘Yeah, it is a pretty silly looking shirt, isn't it?’”

Chris and the other youngsters spending a summer afternoon at the Gateway University Research Center near Browns Summit are unique individuals. But they have at least one thing in common — Asperger's Disorder. Here at UNCG's Dream Camp, children with Asperger's get a chance to interact with others like them in an educational and fun environment.

Asperger's Disorder was first recognized in 1944 by Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger. Children with Asperger's face social and communication challenges and often engage in behaviors that separate them from other kids.

Although researchers are still uncertain about the causes of Asperger's, it is now understood as an Autism Spectrum Disorder, or a mild form of autism, that affects 4 to 7 of every 1,000 children, the majority of them male. Children with Asperger's are often mislabeled and misunderstood by teachers and peers. They are also difficult to diagnose, partly because ADHD, depression and anxiety disorders often co-exist with Asperger's.

Dr. Susan Keane, a UNCG psychology professor, supervises care for Asperger's kids in her department's clinic. In recent years, UNCG's Psychology Clinic has seen a threefold increase in Asperger's referrals, Keane says. “Parents are really hungry for any information about where it came from and how to treat it.”

So with the help of a dedicated group of parents, Keane and 12 of her clinical PhD students launched the Dream Camp pilot program this summer. The camp consisted of three, one-week sessions for kids with Asperger's in grades K-12. Campers gathered from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. each day at the Gateway Center. About 43 campers age ages six to 15 attended.

The three sessions focused on three separate areas — family relationships, friendships and transitioning back to school. The camp was funded by grants from the VF Corporation, the Bryan Foundation and Davis Love III.

The doctoral students volunteered to staff the camp and design activities. “They wanted to be part of something they could help to start,” Keane says. “And they are all interested, of course, in empirically validated treatments.”

Campers play games together to learn team work, draw environments for pre-historic dinosaurs to better understand how they fit into their own environments and play tug-of-war to learn how to combat peer pressure. Building crucial social skills is the name of the game at Dream Camp.

“We want to them to feel respected,” says Keane, who is already investigating funding sources for next year's camp. “We want them to feel supported, and to feel like their opinion is important.”

To learn more about Dream Camp, or to make a donation, contact Susan Keane at (336) 256-0017 or spkeane@uncg.edu.

By Michelle Hines, University Relations

Photography courtesy Robin Sink