2. Is there a specific age group that boot camps have the most effect on?

 

 

1. Would you recommend sending a teen to boot camp?

Sending your teen away to boarding school won’t really solve his or her problem. But, boot camps are a recommendable option to send your teens to instead. Indeed, most parents seek out boot camps assuming that all their troubled teen needs is a ‘wake up call’. Most boot camps are short-term, however, the long-term camps have also increased in popularity over the past few years. Boot camps are known to be efficient when it comes to helping wayward adolescents in improving their overall behavior. Modeled after the military-style schools, boot camps provide military exercises and intense physical training that focuses on respect, reality and responsibility. Since most teens strongly lack these essential qualities, boot camps help instill them. The boot camp experience can help adolescents replace their destructive behaviors and attitudes with a new a perspective of live by pointing them in the right direction. Yes, boot camps are a good option as they provide that ‘quick reality check’ that is responsible for turning a child around who has been acting up. Boot camps are not recommended for troubled teens who need more then a band aid

2. Is there a specific age group that boot camps have the most effect on?

As a parent, sending your teen away to a boot camp might be very hard. Generally, disturbed teens from the age of 13-15 are sent to boot camps, as these are the most receptive years in a child. At the age of 13-15, it is easier to control and direct disruptive children. But, as the kids get older and still continue to show disturbing behavioral patters, then it get a bit tougher to deal with them. However, there are special boot camps for kids who are 18 years and over. These special programs have different techniques of dealing with the kids.

3. What problems do boot camps fix?

Some boot camps focus on experiential therapy that can positively affect teenagers with certain issues like Autism, Obesity, ADHD, Asperser’s, Behavioral problems and learning disorders. Troubled youth and teenagers with special needs don’t generally fit into the ordinary summer camps. Shoplifters, joy riders, car stealers and tearaways are all sent to boot camps.  Parents with teens who are headed down the ‘wrong way’ will always see dramatic changes in their child’s behavior, attitude, and motivation after a visit to one of these boot camps. Teens dealing with substance and drug abuse, aggressive teenagers, antisocial children may need long term intervention like a specialty boarding school. The theology behind these boot camps is that if you yell and yell at these troubled teens and discipline, they will generally straighten out. Angry, aggressive, defiant and oppositional teens might improve under the strict, intense, military-style environment of a boot camp.

4. What problems or for what reasons are most participants in boot camps for?

A major reason why a teen would end up being sent to a boot camp is peer pressure. The pressure to belong to his or her peers can be quite a strain on your teenager and this can lead to disruptive behavior or hostility and defiance. These traits can influence your child’s actions and decisions to a point where intervention is necessary. Many teens are sent packing to boot camps for a number of other reasons that include drug abuse, violent behavior, committing criminal offences, disciplinary issues, and kids who come from broken families. However, as soon as you notice that your teen is showing signs of being disruptive and wayward, doesn’t mean you have to send them packing immediately. Troubled adolescents dealing with issues like depression, attempted suicide, self-harm, or other psychiatric problems would be better off in a therapeutic boarding school or a residential treatment center. 

5. Is the staff like the stereotypical drill sergeants who are always yelling?

A regular teen boot camp is typically military-styled with uniforms and marching in formations and ‘yes sir’, ‘no sir’ tactics. They usually have a structured environment that consists of barracks that are similar to those found in the U.S. Military’s ‘basic training program’. With their bunk beds, footlockers and strict inspections that are conducted by the staff, your troubled teen will have to be on his or her best behavior in order to survive this ordeal, even if it is only for a short while. Yes, life in a teen boot camp is very similar to life in the military. The candidates are all up by 5 or 6 am and they have chores to carry out, inspections, marches, kitchen duties, calisthenics, laundry duties, and so on. The teen boot camps include certain ‘in-your-face’ structured programs with drill sergeants, barracks, bunk beds etc.