ORLANDO, Fla. — Seasonal brain drain is a problem students face each summer when away from school.

Frequently referred to as the “summer slide,” students can lose valuable skills when not actively using them. But the summer slide also applies to special needs students, and it’s why CECO has opened their summer session.

What You Need To Know

  • CECO is an academy for students who have neurological motor disabilities like cerebral palsy

  • The academy is open during the school year, but hosts two summer sessions for students

  • School officials say some students come from out of the country, since they can't enroll during the regular school year

CECO is an academy that highly specializes in neurological motor disabilities. While many schools have programs for special needs students, they’re rarely as specialized as CECO.

According to their site, CECO leverages the profound effectiveness of Conductive Education and further enhances the individual’s learning by adding traditional special education strategies that teach essential academic and daily life skills.

Amanda Guzman is a conductor at the school and helps lead the class with regularly attending students and others who come from out of the country to attend for the summer.

One student traveled from the UK to attend this summer. While another came from Trinidad.

“We do a lot throughout the summer program,” Guzman said. “Fine motors, sitting, standing, individual program. We try to just make the best and the most out of the time that they have here.”

Students at CECO have neurological motor disabilities, and a large part of the program is helping them overcome physical tasks. However, during the summer, those students might face “the summer slide.”

“It does help the parents out. It gives them that relief and that trust that they’re somewhere safe, having fun, and working hard. And just being active,” said Guzman.

One student, Cooper, was a part of the first summer session. His mom, Melissa Smith, said that after everything shut down in the pandemic, they learned how essential constant learning is.

“[During the pandemic] we just watched him regress, and all the skills he had been working so hard on just started going away,” she said.

Smith said he has thrived at the school, and has built valuable relationships with the staff there. She says they plan to continue to enroll Cooper in CECO programs after seeing the strides he’s made.