How to find a summer program for my troubled teen boy? Parenting difficult teenagers has become an epidemic.
Many teens today have been experiencing depression, anxiety, under-performing in school if not completely failing classes — we’ve even witnessed a rise in student’s that were once honor roll students that are now barely passing.
Internet and cell phone addiction has been a major contributing factor to young people’s mental wellness.
Is your teen:
-Rebellious, defiance, rage?
-Entitled? Backtalk, nasty attitude, disrespectful?
-Drifted from family values?
-Cell phone addiction, video gaming?
-Failed in school or poor academic performance?
-Hanging with a negative peer group?
-Vaping or experimenting with drugs or alcohol?
-Overall started making bad choices?
How can a summer program help?
There are therapeutic summer programs that are designed to give families a good foundation of what they are facing with their teen’s behavior. It can give immediate support and most will offer you an assessment or psychiatric evaluation to give you a determination of the treatment plan your child may require (either in the short-term or long-term).
This is a digital detox time when your teen can learn coping skills to manage their feelings of anxiety, anger and even rage when not having their cell-phone or gaming device. It also helps them develop a healthy and balanced relationship with technology. As we know, the internet is only evolving — it’s imperative our children learn to manage their screen-time effectively.
Summer camps dealing with defiance especially when our teen is removed from their phone, will help them develop coping skills through anger and stress management classes as well as positive peer influence and in many instances – behavior therapy including animal assisted therapy, music therapy and art therapy and more.
Help for teens in summer programs include:
- Grade recovery
- Learning coping skills
- Anger and stress management
- Peer relationships offline
- SAT prep classes
- Self-esteem building (helps them make better choices)
- Overall healthy relationship with their devices
Why use a summer program?
In some situations, maybe your teen may only need a summer boost, depending on the issues they are facing. It is important to realize if you have had behavior issues for over a year, it didn’t take 4-6 weeks to get to where you are, it’s unlikely the behavior will change with a short-term summer program.
Some parents feel more comfortable committing to a shorter version of a therapeutic program rather than jumping into a full 6-9-12 month school which is completely understandable. It can give them an opportunity to evaluate the program, therapists and staff. You are unsure if their teen needs a full therapeutic boarding school just yet.
The positive side of using a therapeutic summer program that is part of a therapeutic boarding school is so your child doesn’t have to switch facilities if you determine they need longer care. This can also be helpful if your child successfully completes the summer session, however months later starts to stumble in your home setting and you determine they need to go back. Therapeutic schools offer open enrollment all year round so they would be able to be there to assist you.
In some situations a solid 45-90-day program has been exactly what a student needed to get them back on the right path academically or at least give the family a sense of direction and a balanced home life.
Read: Does Your Teen Want to Drop Out of School.
Read 5 Benefits of Boarding Schools for Troubled Teens.
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Contact us for more information on therapeutic summer programs for troubled teen boys.
