Question from a reader about colleges
Christine recently left this comment on a November 30, 2007, post about autistic students going to college:
I have a son who is PDD/Asperger, but low normal on the IQ scale. He graduated from high school and can drive. He needs social skills and life skills training and desperately wants to get training or college courses to enable him to hold a job that is steady, provides benefits and is more than janitorial in nature. He is frustrated and depressed seeing his younger brother in college and the youngest heading there in another year. The local community college here in Delaware was very hesitant to even let him in an industrial course in car maintenance that doesn’t require entrance exams. There is a program at Lesley College but it costs 2-3 times what we are paying for my other son to go to college. We can’t afford that. Any suggestions?Thank you!
I’ll start with a question for Christine: Does your son have some ideas about what kind of work he would like to do? If I may ask, what in particular is making the Delaware community college “very hesitant” about letting him take the industrial car course? Have you been able to talk to the Disability Support Services or a similar office?I’ve known college students on the spectrum who are taking some courses online, via community college; perhaps this might be a way to deal with some courses. Here in New Jersey, Fairleigh Dickinson University has a Regional Center for College Students with Learning Disabilities; I’ve spoken on a panel about transitinoing to post-secondary education for autistic students with the Center’s director, Vincent Varassi, and am contacting him to find out if there are similar programs in Delaware.Other suggestions are very welcome.
Tags: asd, asperger, autism, College, Education, employment, learning disabilities, Parenting, pdd-nos, university, Work
10 opinions for Question from a reader about colleges
Niksmom
Feb 21, 2008 at 7:53 pm
If Christine is in Delaware, she could also contact any of the following:
The ARC of Delaware 302-996-9400(http://www.thearcofdelaware.org/), Becky Allen is the Exec. Director and very helpful.
Developmental Disabilities Council (www.state.de.us/ddc) 1-800-464-4357
DE Higher Education Commission (http://www.doe.state.de.us/high-ed/), Maureen Laffey 1-800-292-7935
Any of these organizations/individuals should be able to help her find a suitable program and/or arrange the necessary accommodations for her son’s inclusion at the community college.
I am curious if she is referring to DelTech (and which campus, as they are all run somewhat independently in some regards). I have a friend whose daughter is a freshman there with full accommodations. You may feel free to forward my email to Christine, too, if she’d like to touch base with me personally.
ariane
Feb 21, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Is anyone aware of any New York area colleges (or high schools) that have been particularly “accommodating” for those on the spectrum?
stopautismquackery
Feb 21, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Marshall Univ’s pgm:
http://www.marshall.edu/help/
Niksmom
Feb 21, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Correction to my comment: JUDY GOVATOS is now Exec. Dir. of The ARC of Delaware. (Effective 1/21/08)
Kristina Chew, PhD
Feb 21, 2008 at 10:32 pm
@ariane,
I’ve heard a lot about the program at Fairleigh Dickinson, in north-central New Jersey. My husband teaches at Fordham University in Manhattan (the Lincoln Center campus) and has definitely had students with AS, though I’m not sure at all of the university’s disability support services.
A friend’s son, who has Asperger, is now attending an art school in Philadelphia—-he wanted to study some kind of computer/graphic design.
Do you have a high school/college age child and what would he like to study?
David N. Andrews M. Ed. (Distinction)
Feb 22, 2008 at 4:09 am
“I have a son who is PDD/Asperger, but low normal on the IQ scale.”
The overall IQ score is not really relevant, because there are many ways in which any one IQ score can be composed. The issue really is about which subtests your son scored well on and which he found too difficult to score so highly on. Outlier scores tend to cause problems with computing a more realistic overall score, even on the best tests (such as the Wechsler suite… a point made clear in Michelle Dawson’s research). The problem arises in performing tests that are very specific in what they need from the examinee: such as Comprehension (which requires not necessarily the most accurate comprehension of things, but the most “common-sense” understandings of them), Object Assembly (which requires the pulling together of separate bits of visual information that are presented in a very scattered way), and so on. These subtests can be quite difficult for someone on the autistic spectrum. For this reason, it is often useful (and more accurate!) if the examining psychologist pro-rates the top three or four subtests on each of the Verbal and Performance domains (which is within the rules for using such tests). Even better, an assessment with the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) might give a more realistic idea of his intellectual ability level – particularly given your son’s achievements: it has only one timed subtest (Block Design), and assesses abilities in two areas of ability (Verbal Comprehension and Perceptual Organisation, which are the most important aspects of intellect for most purposes).
“He graduated from high school and can drive.”
Precisely.
“He needs social skills and life skills training and desperately wants to get training or college courses to enable him to hold a job that is steady, provides benefits and is more than janitorial in nature”.
These needs should be respected at any place to which he applies.
“He is frustrated and depressed seeing his younger brother in college and the youngest heading there in another year.”
This is understandable. It is very disheartening to see others going off to do things one would like to be doing oneself.
“The local community college here in Delaware was very hesitant to even let him in an industrial course in car maintenance that doesn’t require entrance exams.”
This, given that your son has his high-school diploma and can drive a car, is very likely an act of discrimination. I would advise retaining legal counsel on this matter. Entrance exams are, on the whole, pretty inaccurate measures of aptitude (unless properly designed).
“There is a program at Lesley College but it costs 2-3 times what we are paying for my other son to go to college. We can’t afford that.”
:S
“Any suggestions?”
Because I’m not in the US, and therefore not familiar with the system there, I have very little I can give you as advice on placement; but I hope that you can get a psychologist to re-examine your son with the WASI (or to pro-rate the subtest scores, as I suggested above). That might look better on an application document or any attachment to such a document, in addition to being a far more realistic estimate of his overall level of intellectual ability.
“Thank you!”
You’re welcome. I hope this is of at least some use to you.
ariane
Feb 22, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Hi Kristina,
Thanks for the info. I am actually a school psychologist in the NYC Dept of Ed, so I am always looking for better “options” for students as they “age out” of elementary school. The middle school/high school years are so frightening to many of my parents of children with ASDs.
My research for my doctorate currently focuses on AS and writing accommodations/interventions, but I am becoming increasingly interested in providing assistance to students (and families) who are expected to become more independent as they progress through the upper grades. Basically, I am just collecting info to disseminate to parents and adolescents in need :). Thanks again for your info…your blog is so comprehensive!!
Kristina Chew, PhD
Feb 22, 2008 at 2:29 pm
@ariane,
Thank you, it’s really great to “meet” you! My own son is entering middle school next year—-I was supposed to go to a meeting today to tour the middle school but it’s a snow day, so the tour will be rescheduled. I think my school district is making good efforts to provide programming for a child like my son, who is already starting some vocational training, while still working on things like reading, math, writing. Instructors for high school age students are being trained as job coaches so they can help students transition to working.
I’d love to know more about your research, if that’s possible. It’s definitely an area that I’m more and more interested in.
David N. Andrews M. Ed. (Distinction)
Feb 22, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Kristina, I still have to get a copy of my thesis to you. I’ll try and merge some chapters into a pdf soon as I can, ok?
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