Winter camp gives autistic children an ongoing education

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MiamiHerald.com: Winter camp gives autistic children an ongoing education0Miami HeraldUsing glitter, glue and construction paper, children at the Brazer Center for Autism and Alternative Approaches set off to create personalized greeting cards.They spelled out ‘’Happy New Year'’ using colored cutouts, while teachers helped and looked on. ‘’To see these kids progressing is wonderful,'’ said Lourdes Bauta, who used to bring her son to the center on weekends before becoming a full-time employee. “It’s a slow process, but every day there is something new: a nonverbal child speaking a new word or an aggressive child being able to eat with classmates.'’Children in the center’s eight-day winter camp enjoy daily field trips including beach walks, ice skating and swimming. The brief pockets of time they do have at the center are spent in a buzz of activity: music and art classes, behavioral and cognitive therapy.Better alternatives for autistic children over the holidays are slim, if not nonexistent. One of the few centers of its kind in South Florida, the winter camp — which runs through Friday — has a waiting list of more than 200 children.