Some thoughts on teaching college students on the spectrum
Yesterday I was at a special luncheon celebrating freshmen students for their outstanding academic achievements. I was sitting with a friend, a history professor; at the table were two students who had gotten their certificates of achievement, and their mothers. As the lunch drew to an end, my friend asked me, “So, how is your son doing?” “Really good,” I said and then something motivated me to mention that I am speaking on a panel today about my experiences teaching college students on the autism spectrum. We talked about Asperger’s syndrome and autism and I described my view of the spectrum, of similarities between the two resonating more than differences. We were just starting to agree that we have both encountered students in our classrooms who have Asperger’s syndrome.
I thought about what I would say in my presentation and then, thinking of persons I have known, some of whose autism I have only recently recognized, I noted that the time after college—after leaving the structure of school–seemed to have been a challenge and, sadly, a time for some significant struggles by autistic persons I have known. My friend paused—-and then told the story of a friend’s son who is undiagnosed AS. Much was made of his intelligence and fascination with books as a child; he attended a high school of high academic credentials and his parents received calls from the principal’s office: He was having some difficult moments. He got through college and has not, my friend noted, been able to find a job. I thought of this article about a young man who was diagnosed with AS at the age of 22, after years of struggling in school, not being able to stay in a job, and depression.
This conversation made me think: We professors think much about how to reach our students in the classroom. We pass out syllabi with our office hours in boldface, we write our email addresses over and over on the whiteboard, we smile encouragement. But maybe what we need to consider more is not how to teach an ASD student to be a good college student—-I have been reading first person accounts by a number of ASD college students, many of which contain some “important tips” for succeeding in college.
But what and how do we teach to help students after they leave the university and the structure and routines of school?
17 opinions for Some thoughts on teaching college students on the spectrum
Bonnie Ventura
Mar 16, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Regrettably, at this point in time, we have to teach them that they are likely to encounter discrimination in job interviews, and some strategies for dealing with it.
I hope that will not be necessary in the future…
Usal
Mar 16, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Over time is has gotten harder to get through interviews. Once it was just you and one other person. It was easy to keep under control and fake being neurotypical when you only had one person to react with.
Now interviews are often a tag team affair, with teams of interviewers from 4-10 people. It’s easy to quickly get overloaded trying to keep track of everyone in the room and try to keep up with the questions, which come from all over. And while doing this you have to worry about appearing to be neurotypical enough to not scare them, which gets more difficult the more people you have to keep track of.
The last interview I went on I was interviewing with people who knew me and most of them knew I’m autistic. It helped greatly that they knew to not expect me to act non-autistic, but I still didn’t get the job. But it was the first time I’d been in an interview we’d I’d not either lost the ability to speak, or started to having troubles speaking because I was getting close to becoming non-verbal. I think more tolerance and understanding will help with interviewing and help autistics with finding jobs.
Dora
Mar 16, 2007 at 4:18 pm
I’m not sure if professors are equipped (or should be) teaching life and job skills to students. I would like to have had someone to help coach me on life and job skills either before, during, or after my undergraduate, but I can’t see having my professors done that.
I am currently in school again (graduate), but am working outside of school this time with vocational rehabilitation and a really great LCSW, and hopefully I will be able to gain the skills I need to be employable and live in a sustainable and healthy way from that.
I haven’t thought very deeply about this topic yet, but have thought about it some. For me I wish that there were better support services for me outside of school; that is, the school fulfills my needs with respect to school, but I need something more that will better fulfill my needs with respect to life. I don’t think it’s school’s job to fulfill my needs with respect to life. Although I may also be misunderstanding your post.
Daisy
Mar 16, 2007 at 6:00 pm
I wonder if they offer tips for kids with Aspergers to succeed in high school? Sigh.
Julia
Mar 16, 2007 at 8:35 pm
I managed to get married in time to give myself a safety net upon graduation. I’m not sure how well I would have done on my own — in fact, I’m not sure how well I would be at living alone, I’ve never lived alone.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Mar 16, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Thanks about the point regading job interviews. Perhaps something for disability support specialists and career services to consider?
Dora, thanks for your thoughtful response—-I had worded the question very generally. Some professors where I teach are very involved in job training in the sense that they are professors of education or accounting and so teach skill that directly apply to a student’s career. When I was in college, I learned new ways of thinking, new perspectives from which to analyze ideas, from professors. Hope your graduate school experience continues to go well.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Mar 16, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Independence is relative………Daisy, I heard some more strategies for ASD students in high school today and will try to link to some soon.
Marcie
Mar 16, 2007 at 10:00 pm
I wish someone had told me about Vocational Rehabilition earlier (I’m not sure if all or even other states have this service).
The only other thing I can think of concerns meal planning and learning to cook.
Donna
Mar 16, 2007 at 11:11 pm
I find your thoughts on this very interesting, Kristine. As a high school Transition Coordinator, I plan educational activities that provide opportunities for students to learn the skills needed to engage in independent employment and community living. Our program is based on state career education standards, and social and life skills curricula. Although we are able to enroll the majority of students in our AS and Life Skills classes in our program, we find that it is very difficult to get buy-in from parents of main-streamed students with Aspergers or high functioning autism. They tell us very clearly that their son/daughter is going on to college, and fear that our program is tracking students in a life skills or vocational track. That is not true, and students can certainly follow an appropriate course of study toward their postsecondary goals and still participate in our program. But that tells you a lot about impressions. I hope parents and students read your blog, and reconsider the value of allowing the high school to teach these skills.
Kassiane
Mar 17, 2007 at 12:20 am
I know I wish I’d had life skills teaching, but they assume if you can do academics you will magically pick up everything else. It doesn’t work that way, being able to do trig doesn’t make me able to put together a budget or manage a household.
I’ve been lucky in that every job, at least, fell right into my lap. Gymnastlcs centers don’t care if you’re odd as long as you can teach, and autism conferences pretty much EXPECT some degree of weirdness…
Zaecus
Mar 17, 2007 at 2:45 am
Having dealt with the local vocational rehab department and being in a group where this was a topic for discussion and not getting anything actually useful from either group, I wonder why the focus seems to be exclusively on helping us change to meet the workplace. There’s no reason why the workplace can’t change to, at least, meet us halfway, unless it’s because it’s easier to change a single autistic than it is to change an entrenched institution.
In my opinion, if that reason were important, child labor would still be around in the US, and kids would be getting ‘occupational training’ to learn how to deal with the grueling hours and demands.
I’m ambivalent about the idea of having college professors instruct in this area, even if business does agree to do a little accommodating (which might be good for -everyone-). It seems like a wonderful idea, using an educational environment to instruct, but there are so many people who come out of the education system not knowing how to learn on their own (sadly, a self-defense mechanism for many autistics) which should probably be one of the first things they learn how to do. Right?
I also have a difficult time thinking of colleges, much less college professors, as a good choice because I’m still dealing with a situation where a professor, a counselor, a department chair, the Dean of Students, and the Vice President of Instruction worked together to, at the onset, keep me from being able to get the instructions for a research paper and the time needed to do it, and now, admitting that -they- had done anything that might have been in error.
I don’t apply this to all professors, having had teachers and professors who were willing to support me and speak up for me, but I’m extremely nervous about subjecting myself to that structure again because I don’t have the allies or the resources to fight them, even when the situation is clear enough that everyone I’ve talked to has told me to get a lawyer I can’t afford.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Mar 17, 2007 at 10:53 am
Thanks, Zaecus. I think the hardest part may be getting professors and teachers to change. (In other words, a lot of professors could use some re-training in their teaching themselves.)
When my son struggles to learns—gets stuck on learning a word, for instance—-our strategy is that we need to look at the teaching we are doing for him, and to find ways to change what we, not Charlie, are doing. I try very hard to adapt this strategy in my classroom: If student essays are “not what I expect,” I need to rewrite the assignment and do a much better job at explaining what I was expecting, or even recast the whole assignment.
What I’m learning from this conversation is the extent to which some suggestions for teaching autistic students from the perspective of a professor to professors might be helpful and any other idea you have are more than welcomed.
I hope the situation with you regarding the research paper works out?
Sarah
Mar 17, 2007 at 3:08 pm
As a current undergraduate with Asperger’s I would have to say that one of the most important things higher education can do is simply not to *perpetuate* discrimination. Most colleges, mine included, have a numer of employment opportunities open to students. I’ve been very frustrated by the interviewing and hiring process at my school, despite having excellent grades and being well-thought of by my professors. But I’m a poor interviewee so I never get any of the on-campus jobs I apply for. I think college could be a good opportunity for students on the spectrum to gain work experience, but that won’t happen if colleges continue to pass us over in favor of students with “good” social skills. Certainly this kind of job discrimination exists everywhere, but there’s no need for institutions of higher learning to be perpetuating it. Autistic students could be a real asset if given the opportunity to contribute. That to me is step number one.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Mar 17, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Sarah, thank you so much for pointing this out. It seems that colleges should, or could, be places where this kind of work experience could happen, and that colleges could (and should) be places where a student could get work experience, work on interview skills. And not perpetuate discrimination.
Zaecus
Mar 18, 2007 at 4:32 am
“I hope the situation with you regarding the research paper works out?”
No. It was over a year ago, and I haven’t done anything with my life since then because I have no way to defend myself against events like this, much less prevent them.
The school dropped my discrimination complaint (based on the admitted fact that a counselor broke ethics and told the Dean about my suspected AS, which he researched and believed, and from that point, he dismissed my complaints and upheld the professor’s -without investigation-). The Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services also breached confidentiality, causing problems, and the counselor has since stopped responding to me (The only thing I’ve actually gotten from them was a diagnosis). The organization that handles these matters for the state declined to help but still said I should definitely get a lawyer.
I still look for some option that I might have missed, but at this point, I’ve come to terms with there not being anything out there to help me.
David N. Andrews M. Ed. (Distinction)
Mar 18, 2007 at 7:12 am
At Birmingham, my diagnosis was accepted as part of my entrance qualifications… as was a BA(Ord)’s worth of undergrad study that hadn’t been formalised into that BA(Ord) yet… a BA(Inv) if you will…
I know, though, that I was very lucky in my situation with Birmingham. All too often I come into contact - one way or another - with people whose higher education experience has been marred (or worse) by prejudice, dscrimination and outright bigotry.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Mar 18, 2007 at 4:59 pm
I’ve noted that the application forms for study at Oxford and Cambridge include autism as a separate category one can check off, along with otherwise identifying one’s ethnicity; I have not seen this in any similar materials in the US.
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