Aspies For Freedom

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic.../803100317

Autism no longer an obstacle for students seeking college degree
Mentors, trained teachers help students to see success
BY ROBIN ERB • FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER • March 10, 2008

If college were purely academic, 16-year-old Cullen Kappel would have no worries.

But the mostly straight-A student who studies astrophysics just for fun knows his challenge at college will be in what happens between classes.

Cullen has Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism. Like others with Asperger's, he tends to hyper-focus on topics, can be thrown off-kilter with a slight change to his routine and has a tough time deciphering conversation cues.

"I feel a bit socially challenged," said the junior at Clarkston High School.

Now, universities across the state and the country are reaching out to students with autism and related disorders as their numbers grow rapidly -- thanks to early treatment of the disorders in children.

The schools are setting up peer mentoring programs, having one-on-one interventions and working with housing officials, campus security and professors to help them understand why some students might seem quirky, rude or out of place.

Students with Asperger's syndrome are some of the highest-functioning among those with autism, many with above-average intelligence, "all the way to brilliant," said Jane Thierfeld Brown, director of student services at the University of Connecticut's law school. She's coauthoring a book, "Students with Asperger's Syndrome in Higher Education."

But the disorder also short-circuits the part of the brain responsible for executive functioning, making it difficult to organize and prioritize -- keys to academic success.

Physical idiosyncrasies -- hand-flapping, for example -- can make people with Asperger's appear eccentric.

And conversational cues -- plays on words, facial features, hand gestures -- pass by unrecognized.

So Brandon Goyings, a 22-year-old Oakland University student from Jackson, sometimes doesn't get jokes.

"I think more concrete, less abstract," he said.

And it's something that threatens academic success. An autistic student might not be able to read a professor's cues or decipher a lab partner's annoyance at his outbursts or quirky habits.

"College expects you to come with a certain skill set ... but this is a communication disability," said Linda Sisson, director of Oakland University's new peer assistance program for students with autism.

More students in college
Students with autism were graduating from college long before many of today's outreach efforts began.

But university disabilities offices say more of those students are heading to college than ever after a decade or more of early intervention, parental advocacy and federally mandated mainstreaming into regular classrooms.

Steven Schwartz, an associate professor of special education at Madonna University, noted that "15 or 20 years ago, the idea of including an autistic kid in a general education classroom was craziness. Now it's not only an expectation, it's the law."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in 150 8-year-olds has some autism spectrum disorder.

And in her survey of 80 institutions across the country last year, Thierfeld Brown said four-year schools had an average of 10 students who reported to their schools' disabilities offices that they had some form of autism. But she estimates the number is much higher because many students don't report their diagnosis.

Tailor-made programs
In Michigan, Oakland University has offered courses for years for teachers and other professionals who want to work with students with autism.

Now it's wrapping services around its students with the disorder, starting with a peer support program for students like Goyings.

To address the organizational challenges and the need for tangible direction, students with autism paired with other students and received a daily planner. They broke down a semester's worth of assignments into daily chunks and listed every task of the day -- sometimes even eating and exercising.

To hone communication skills, the students meet weekly to practice what they have learned about conversation intricacies -- from beginning a conversation to registering smiles and frowns.

Mia Evans, a 22-year-old political science and journalism major from Detroit, mentors a 22-year-old student with autism from Orchard Lake. Evans asks her mentee about classes and homework. She helps the student replay conversations, searching for clues that the student is faltering.

"We don't sugarcoat the campus experience," Evans said, but "we give them a reference point."

Success in school
Even universities that don't have programs tailored for students with autism have made adjustments for them.

Since they can get easily distracted -- or at the other end, fixated -- some disabilities offices work with professors during final exams week to find a quiet room for the autistic test-taker.

Tim Hull, a 22-year-old Grass Lake student with autism, expects to graduate from the University of Michigan this spring with a double major, but it hasn't been without plenty of challenges.

He has trouble parsing questions on a test or splitting a semester's project into daily tasks. He gave up on taking notes in class, finding himself consumed with writing instead of digesting the lecture.

He sometimes works on projects for several days straight with just a few hours of sleep.

"I tend to do everything full force or not at all," he said.

For others, the most pivotal battle is in building relationships. Because they can seem to be eccentric or rude, autistic students often are isolated, frustrated and ultimately depressed. It's a road map to dropping out of school.

At Grand Valley State University, Amy Matthews, the project director for the STate Wide Autism Resources & Training program, recruited students from her classes to invite an autistic classmate to movies and football games.

She and others who work with students with autism say they have gained crucial ground -- people are starting to recognize the disorder rather than reeling from it.

At the University of Connecticut, Thierfeld Brown said she recently explained to someone outside her school that she worked with students with Asperger's.

"He said 'Oh, my neighbor's kid has that,' " she said, adding: "Five years ago, it would have been 'Asparagus-what?' "

I'm not sure if "Early Intervention" refers to ABA, and how many of those who get higher education have had ABA.

Remember primary, was so such a bad experience that I sometimes think it would be better if I skipped it continuously.

The work load is so much that most students do physics and math problem sets in study groups and copy and share answers among themselves.  If you don't have friends that will invite you to a study group, you are going to barely pass.  Each problem set has a few questions on it, maybe 3 or 4 out of the 10 that are easy.  The rest are more difficult and take time to solve.  Unless you are really really brilliant, you are not going to have time to get them all.  This is one of the disadvantages of having the lack of social skills.

That's so weird. I never went anywhere near a study group (if indeed any existed at St Andrews or Oxford in the 1990s) and I still somehow managed to get a II.i in joint honours maths & philosophy and a masters in applied maths. That was before I was diagnosed, so maybe that only goes to show that's it's amazing what you can achieve when you don't know what you can't do!
(Aeolienne reaches for her flame-retardant coat)

Not everyone's a genius

I think that was a major problem for me. I didn't make any friends when I was at university, so I didn't attend even one study group. I worked with a tutor, but I think a study group would have helped me a lot more. I typed something up stating that I would like to form a chemistry study group with other students and posted it on my door, but no one ever approached me about it.

I didn't even know you were supposed to do that--work in groups, I mean.

For me the executive functioning tasks are the hardest.  I'm only in High School and I was nearly kicked out of school last year for being unable to turn in homework, show up at class/school on time, wash my dishes (our school has its own kitchen), and other things.  I'm doing much better academically now, but at the cost of being unable to do ANY after-school activities of ANY KIND, hang out with friends, eat in the kitchen (I have to bring foods that don't require dishes now), read books (I haven't got time!), etc.  And I still struggle more than my peers do with homework, I can't manage to shower more than once a week (sometimes even less frequently), exercise regularly, brush my teeth regularly, or even eat enough.  I have to work really, really hard to ingest enough food to keep myself from losing weight, let alone gain weight, which I need to do because I'm underweight (thanks again to Executive Dysfunction! )

Some of the other things they mention would affect me, too.  I'd probably be too shy to talk to my professor about anything, ever, and I would probably be unable to set up a system with someone else whereby I get help in class when I need it.  Even in my high school, I can't get teachers to help me figure out what a homework assignment or a test question means when I can't parse it.

It's things like this that make me feel I should try to get a diagnosis after I turn 18 (when I can finally get one without my parents)- If I weren't going to be going to college, I wouldn't bother, but I'm going to need supports in college that I almost definitely cannot get without a diagnosis.

I think I've it very similar to Luai.

The writer could have picked a better title for the article. I think I read somewhere on Attwood's website they people with AS are more likely to go to college.

I wonder why they keep referring to early intervention. I still don't like that term. It sounds too much like the kind of intervention you do when a friend is having drug problems and you try to confront them about it, or intervening when something has gone wrong. Why is it that when you need extra help to learn some skills or to make education more accessible it gets called "intervention"?

Also, Luai_Lashire, I was wondering why you have to wait until you're 18. I understand that your parents won't listen to anything suggesting you're autistic, but when I was 10 I was diagnosed entirely through the school, and I don't think the parents need to initiate or be involved, though they'll certainly consult with them upon diagnosis.

I wish they would show a woman doing an arts or humanities major and show that they still might just need assistance with approaching professors/tutors for help and dealing with executive dysfunction and bullying and ostracism.

We do need to get away from the stereotype of aspies being male computer or maths nerds.

I don't know about other schools, but at my school, they can't even let you see a counselor without informing your parents.  My home life is sucky enough as it is, I don't need my parents yelling at me about going behind their backs to get a diagnosis on top of it all.  That's if I even can get a diagnosis through the school, which I sincerely doubt.  The school counselor can't even give me a personal opinion on whether or not I have AS (and she's worked with a lot of AS kids, so she is aware of AS), she can't get me to see a specialist for DEPRESSION without my parents signing a form, let alone an AS specialist, she can't really do anything.

Actually, you're wrong.  You don't have to make a broad statement to perpetuate a stereotype.  The stereotyping is in who they chose (and routinely choose) to talk to when they are talking about autism.  Read through the article again.  Notice that they only talk about aspies who are good at math and physics.  Notice that they do not make many generalizing statements about aspies, but they fail to say anything about any kind of aspie except the hyper-intelligent, maths-obsessed, highly academic type.  In fact, they barely mention Executive Dysfunction, and make it look as though most or all aspies get good grades.
If it were just one article, it wouldn't be as bad, but the fact is this article represents a pattern in the media, and therein is the stereotype.  All that any lay person ever reads in the media is about academically gifted, slightly social awkward, maths-obsessed aspies, usually male aspies.  The only mention of non-intelligent autistics is usually in reference to LFAs, never other aspies.  Eye-contact and stims are always mentioned, very few other specific social problems ever are.  It gives the public a very stilted and, indeed, stereotyped view of autism.

  Why, thank you Batman!  And may I say that you were also completely correct in your interpretation of the article.

Yes, it really annoys me to see this stereotype as there must be just about as many different kinds of aspies as there are people with Asperger's.