A credible wilderness adventure therapy program for teens with autism spectrum disorder will focus on helping the teen with the following 7 objectives:
-Enhance Emotional Tolerance and Behavioral Regulation Skills
-Develop Coping Skills
-Develop Social Skills
-Increase Flexibility and Reduce Rigidity
-Internalize and Generalize Skills Obtained
-Obtain Functional Assessment
-Develop Executive Function Skills
The dynamic treatment approach helps teens with ASD break through boundaries, build awareness, and establish healthier cognitive and behavioral patterns.
How Does Wilderness Adventure Help Teens with Level 1 Autism Achieve These Goals?
When students first begin treatment in a specialized program, such as Vantage Point by Aspiro, they participate in a variety of adventure activities, service, and involvement in small communities designed to help them develop skills necessary for developing connections to other and the world around them. This helps lay the foundation for them to establish a connection with the people and the world around them.
A credible wilderness adventure therapy program is able to effectively teach teens with ASD these skills through:
Project-Based Learning Systems: Teens collaboratively solving problems that have real-world applications
Exposure to New Environments: Teens learn to incorporate change effectively
Program Adaptability: The therapists adapt to each teen’s different needs and anxieties to help them address issues, build social skills, and experience social success.
A Variety of Experiences: Different experiences and environments help teens generalize skill sets so they can later find success in a variety of social settings.
These strategies are especially effective in a wilderness adventure therapy setting because of the novel and new environment that the specialized treatment program provides.
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About Vantage Point by Aspiro
Vantage Point is a specialized offshoot of Aspiro Adventure, the program that pioneered wilderness adventure therapy. Vantage Point focuses on helping students with executive function disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorders, and Nonverbal Learning Disorders, among others.
The Vantage Point programs are designed to build self-efficacy in our students through overwhelming mastery experiences – our students accomplish goals they never believed possible, which creates a belief that they are capable of changing their own lives for the better. We focus specifically on social dynamics and social skills to help our students connect with others and feel like they can be a part of the world. Experiential Learning is a tenet of our philosophy and our program. Paired with ongoing individual therapy and targeting specific areas for growth, our wilderness therapy programs are proven successful by outcome studies and are overseen by experienced Field Guides and clinical professionals
