College Student, ASD
A growing number of students on the autism spectrum are entering college, as noted in today’s New York Times. The National Association for College Admission Counseling held a conference in October about finding “suitable colleges” for these students. Said Fred Volkmar, director of the Yale Child Study Center:
“Twenty- five years ago, I would have been stunned to learn that I was going to put together a conference on colleges for these kids. Twenty-five years ago, the stereotype view was that they were not very bright and not college material.”
I have met more than a few of these students in my college classroom, in composition classes for first-year students, in elementary Latin and ancient Greek classes. Some students do not have an “official” diagnosis; others do and have come to speak to me—or rather, have emailed me—after I mentioned that “my son has autism.”
I will be posting more about my experiences teaching autistic college students.
I will say, the first thing I do is to listen. And then, I relate my office hours, the location of my office, and my email address, and that I am always here to listen.
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POSTED IN: Adulthood, Asperger's Syndrome, College, Education, Parenting, Psychology, Stereotypes
9 opinions for College Student, ASD
Roy Grinker
Nov 5, 2006 at 3:59 pm
So happy you brought up the college issue. As I found in a seminar I taught recently, the students are fine with having a classmate with autism! It’s the profs. who have a hard time. But the more the student is prepared to communicate with the prof., the better. My student, who described himself as autistic on the first day of class, was good at advocating for himself, because his parents taught him to do so. This meant he was uncomfortable coming up to me after the first class and saying, “I will do crossword puzzles in class so I can stay focused, but I am listening. I just wanted you to know that. Is that ok?” It was a great moment for me because he gave me the opportunity to help him. Parents need to start very early helping their kids learn how to advocate for themselves and to be comfortable discussing their needs.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 5, 2006 at 7:27 pm
In an interesting coincidence, I read the article after having just met Ari Ne’eman of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN) and talking about, among many things, transition issues, especially those in going from high school to college, and from middle school to high school. One student told me that it really helps for her to listen to music via headphones while writing in-class (for an exam)—she also has learned to advocate for herself. Another student where I used to teach emailed me after I had talked about Charlie during class; he later wrote an amazing paper about his disability and his hope of becoming a neurologist to help kids like himself.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 5, 2006 at 10:38 pm
A college student with PDD-NOS noted three factors that helped her in transitioning on Autismland.
Dora
Nov 6, 2006 at 6:09 pm
I’m an autistic graduate student (I follow the Autism Hub feed). I’ve had the experience of college without proper support and advocacy (and almost failing) and now doing college with proper support and advocacy (and doing well). I would be happy to give you information on what works well for me and what doesn’t, and what my experiences with faculty, peers, and disability services have been at my school if you are interested. Feel free to email me at lady_dmray at livejournal period com, or I can reply here. I’m rather interested in the topic of autism + college right now as it is a major part of my life.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 7, 2006 at 12:13 am
Dora, thank you so much! It would be wonderful to learn about what works (and what has not) for you. What are you studying?
Dora
Nov 7, 2006 at 1:58 am
I’m studying systems science / complexity with a domain focus in computational intelligence. This is my program: http://www.sysc.pdx.edu/ . I have always been fascinated by complexity but didn’t realize that it was something with a name that I could study formally until a few years ago–that discovery was very exciting! I’m specifically (currently) interested in the process of creativity, and ways to simulate creative processes on computers; that is, how do animals combine old information in new ways which are relevant with respect to a novel stimulus?
Aren’t you sorry you asked? :-)
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 7, 2006 at 2:11 am
More glad than ever—-at the risk of sounding trite, it sounds really interesting. Especially regarding creativity.
Dora
Nov 7, 2006 at 2:21 am
As far as helpful things:
From disability services I get a private room for testing (which is wonderful both because there are less distractions for me and because I don’t have to worry about distracting the other students by stimming), 1.5 time on tests (more time to translate my thoughts into test-format), and noise-cancelling headphones.
I also email a list of additional items to teachers prior to a class, and let the teachers know I’m open to discussion if there will be a conflict between the list and course requirements. The list briefly explains sensory and communication issues at the top, and then requests 1. no group work; 2. limited capacity for class participation; 3. openness to negotiation for grossly misinterpreting language in instructions; 4. the “paying attention” clause about “lack of eye contact and fidgiting does not mean I’m not paying attention.”
My faculty has been incredibly understanding and helpful; I even have one teacher who without prompting from me has been coaching me on human interaction things within the program. I’m currently doing an alternative assignment for a course which has a class participation requirement. My disability services on the other hand are clueless and have created almost more problems than they’ve alieviated, and my advocate and I are working on a formal complaint. I have a general advocate who helps me with communication problems because disability services is so awful. As far as peers, my program is very small (12 students in the core program). I don’t “pass” for NT, and all of the students know why; it’s just easier that way for everyone. The other students have all been very good to me so far and do not treat me strangely, but I have not had sufficient time yet to try to build relationships with any of them.
I can elaborate more on any of this if you’d like; just tell me specifically what you are interested in.
skip grove
Apr 2, 2008 at 11:07 pm
I have a grandson with mild case of tourettes & he will be graduating from high school & we are looking for a college for him to go to. Can anyone tell of one? We are worried of the teasing he will get out of classes & living on compas…The high school he attends is very on top of bulling….If anyone can help please let us know….Thank You
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