The college hosts various summer camps for local children and teenagers every year that are fun but also help them develop new skills and make friends along the way.
The camps are also good training grounds for our students from various majors, offering valuable real-world experiences as they work with kids to enhance communication, speech and writing capabilities.
The Augmentative and Alternative Communication Lab hosted its second summer camp experience for children with significant speech and language limitations who use Alternative and Augmentative Communication devices. Researchers in the lab are working with technology transfer experts and industry leaders to develop the next generation of AAC devices enhanced by artificial intellignence to improve children’s academic and social communication.
AAC summer campers were paired with non-AAC user peers throughout the three-week camp for a STEM-themed experience, referring to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
The WE CARE-sponsored camp was staffed by students from the college’s Teacher Education, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Educational Studies and Occupational Therapy programs. Faculty from Special Education, Communication Sciences and Disorders, and Educational Studies oversaw and facilitated the camp.
The Speech and Hearing Clinic, in the college’s Department of Communication Disorders and Occupational Therapy, held various themed camps throughout the summer. Faculty leader Stephanie Hicks and a team of undergraduate and graduate students created lessons focused on a different book each week. They used speech, language and literacy activities related to camping, apple pie making, the beach, doughnuts and sharks.
Undergraduate student Macy Alguire helped make “shark week” an even bigger splash with the kids by sharing about her incredible deep-sea adventures during a study abroad trip to South Africa this summer.
The college’s Young Writer’s Camp returned to several locations throughout Northwest Arkansas this summer, including Peabody Hall on campus.
Northwest Arkansas teachers help teach the camp each year, which is for students enrolled in second through 11th grades. Several graduate students attended camp sessions this year to observe and interact. Campers practiced creative and academic writing and had the opportunity to meet with U of A Police Department K-9 handlers and Razorback student-athletes. They had individual, small group and whole-group writing experiences to help improve their craft.
The Northwest Arkansas Writing Project has sponsored camps for young writers for over 20 years. The professional organization is focused on improving writing in area schools. As one of about 200 National Writing Project sites, it provides professional development for educators and directly reaches young writers through summer camps and other activities.
Children play in the spray from a fire truck.
This article originally was published as “Summer Camps Create Fun, Give Students Real-World Experience,” in the Leading with Care magazine on July 28, 2025.