At an elementary school in Ypsilanti, the floor is littered with colorful objects: hula hoops, streamers, balloons, balls of different textures and sizes. The children in the room have chosen different toys. A boy named Joey leaps around with blue streamers, his light-up sneakers flashing different colors as he jumps, his gurgling laugh filling the space with joy. 

Later on in the free play session, Joey is playing with a hula hoop, but the hoop isn’t rolling the way he expected it to. Predictability is important to him, and he starts to grow stressed. Haylie Miller, an assistant professor of movement science who regularly works with autistic children through research in her Motor & Visual Development Lab, notices and asks what’s next on the schedule. Joey looks at a whiteboard with the titles of different activities, complete with a picture for each. Bowling is listed first.

“You want to bowl against me?” Miller asks, holding out a hand for Joey to shake. He slips his fingers into hers. Within seconds, he’s giggling while hurtling himself at the bowling pins.

“That was kind of fun,” he says afterward.

Joey is enrolled in KidSport Adaptive, a new addition to Michigan Kinesiology’s well-known physical activity camp. Adaptive is designed for kids with neurodevelopmental and physical differences who are likely to have a better experience at camp if they receive personalized support around safety, communication, or regulation of their emotions and behavior.

“We wanted to give kids who needed more support the opportunity to be physically active,” says Kerry Winkelseth, the long-running director of Kinesiology Community Programs, who partnered with Miller to launch Adaptive this past summer. “They don’t get as many chances.”

While some of the campers so far have had a formal diagnosis like autism or cerebral palsy, parents don’t need to know what brand of “neuro-spicy” or “neuro-sparkly” their kid is in order to send them to Adaptive, Miller says. And if they think their child would be comfortable in KidSport Inclusive — the rebranded KidSport camp with a higher camper-to-counselor ratio — they’re welcome to send them there instead. (One camper enrolled in Inclusive this summer wore headphones because of a noise sensitivity but didn’t need the one-on-one support Adaptive provided.)

For the kids who would benefit from more modifications to stay safe and enjoy their time at camp, the Adaptive staff plan the schedule to accommodate their needs. Is a camper known to wander off without telling anyone? That camper will have a counselor with them at all times. Are they prone to physical aggression when they are overstimulated? Staff will make sure some calming activities are available that speak to the child’s interests — coloring Spider-Man pictures, in the case of one camper — in case they become frustrated.

Kelli Dorchen, Joey’s mother, said the experience has been “incredible.” She’s had to pick Joey up early from several other camps that don’t have the resources or expertise to support him.

“It’s so comforting being able to leave him and knowing I’m not going to get called half an hour in,” she says. “I wish there were more weeks available.”

Miller and Winkelseth hope to eventually provide the camp for nine weeks, up from this year’s two, and to provide both morning and afternoon sessions. They are still brainstorming sustainable solutions that don’t raise registration costs too high for families. Adaptive may eventually serve as a capstone for students in some of Miller and Winkelseth’s courses, for instance.

“We want to be that clear, safe space for parents trying to find a good fit for their little person,” Miller says. “But we’ll only expand if we can keep doing things the right way.”