Any parents of college-age Aspergerians?

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Hi--I'm new here this week after being away from any sort of formal autism/Asperger community for almost a decade. My daughter is 19 and has Asperger's & ADD.

My daughter got through high school with no official accommodation--just a flimsy 504 that only dealt with sensory overload. Her transition to college has been disastrous--we just got her withdrawn from all her classes on a medical excuse (anxiety)after I learned that she was flunking everything. I've been advised that I should fight for accommodation when she returns in the fall and I'm wondering if anyone has successfully done this without having had accommodation in HS? We were denied accommodation in HS because she was not failing. Apparently, I would have done a favor by letting her fail so that we could have gotten accommodation. *sigh*

I'm not even sure what that accommodation would look like. Her main issues are with distraction, organization and communicating with her instructors. She also said she misses high school--the structure, some teachers who cared about her and an opportunity to make a few friends. She attends the local tech college where there's no sense of community for her. She really wants to go to college--I'd appreciate some suggestions for helping her next try more successful.

Also--is it possible to search specific discussions, rather than the whole forum, since I'm sure none of the questions I have are new. Thank you.

ever try service animals. there was a big thing here by me where a kid won the right to a service animal in class

I don't have personal experience in this area, but have looked into it a great deal as I will be in the same boat as you with my son in four years.

From what I have learned, if you have a formal diagnosis for your daughter you should be able to get the following accomodations:

1. Extended time on tests
2. Class notes -- either from the teacher, or through another student (you may have to pay for those from another student)
3. Schedule from each class that outlines tests, assignments, projects, etc
4. Possibly, a person assigned to "oversee" your daughter's progress and make sure that she does assignments, etc. on time

I don't think that your daughter's experience is that unusual for people on the spectrum -- and I'm looking forward to other people's responses to this question!

My goodness, I have those same problems. Yes, I've flunked out of many courses. I am currently supposed to be studying anatomy. At least she doesn't have to work, does she?
I have accomodations for this year. Includes extra time on tests and notes. The notes are invaluable, as I am learning how to organize my notes better. It is easier, now, and I know what is most important. That is actually a big challenge, knowing what is most important on tests, concretely and "in your face."

I would like to know how a service animal would help. Really. Dogs are really good with routine and can keep you on the path very well. That I could see.

I highly recommend she talks to the professor. If she has TAs, they are absolutely invaluable. I have received most of my help from my dear TAs! They are more in tune to students sometimes, I think, because they are still students, as well. I don't know. There are more of them than the professors.

I dealt with a similar situation. On the specific schools campus there should be some sort of Resources for Disabled Students department. There should be someone who is there that will help you with whatever you need, typically all you would need is a school ID and documentation.

Hope I helped.

I'd suggest that a university or a college with more of an identity, might be better for her. Living on campus in a dormitory would provide better opportunities to make friends.

Some kind of adjustment might still be needed for the course work. Colleges generally leave more up to the students' individual initiative, which she may still need help on.

At this point, we have several barriers to getting her to a 4 year school. 1) Her GPA from her first semester is. 067. Before I found out how bad things were, we had found a campus a few hours from home that is one of the top schools in the US for students with disabilities of any kind. She was actually very excited about going there, but when I explained the current situation to their AS/Autism specialist, she said that there's no way my daughter was ready for that experience. 2) Money is also an issue. We only qualify for loans, and I am still paying off my graduate school loans. And we are unsure of her financial aid status right now even for loans, because how poorly she's done.

Thanks--this is the practical stuff I'm looking for. Test-taking is not an issue at all, but the rest are all relevant and regular issues. My question about the note-taking, though: Would she ever pick up this skill? How does this work? Anyone who has had this accommodation? I'd love to hear how it works for you.

She has agreed to share all her schedules, online accesss, etc, with me, when she goes back. I am hoping we can fight for that accommodation from the school. Not having had it in HS will make it harder, and there's no way we can pay for that on our on, I don't think. Time to get creative, I suppose.

Thank you. We have been working informally with a disabilities staff person, but she has never offered us accommodation. But, as an advocate from Independent Living Resources explained to me, disabilities staff can't say yes to everyone, so it's up to us to push the issue and make our case. IRL has offered advocacy support as we go through that process, so maybe we'll have better luck this time. We do have fairly recent documentation, but I will be getting that updated.

I take it she is in a community college or something similar. How many classes is she taking? One thing I found going though my classes is that the more classes I had the less my average was. I took 4 classes and averaged a C in all of them, then I took just one class and got an A and a 97% on the final. Sometimes taking 4-7 classes like you did in high school is not the way to show how capable you are than when you focus on 1 or 2 classes.

Just ask her if she feels overloaded and if she wants to try doing 1 or 2 classes at a time, coming off the high school hype, she might not recognize it right away but if it keeps happening even with assistance from the school she will realize her limits.

Also I have had assistance from the school but that was only to bring a recorder into the class, some people need note takers.

Thanks Jeff. Yes, it's the local tech college.

Can I ask if you had other stuff going on, like a job or anything else? Aside from 4 hours of volunteer work, she has no other obligations. She's not involved with any sort of group or activity, has no local/real life friends, no job. It was frustrating to me, as a parent, to see her get lost 8-12 hours a day doing recreational stuff online, seemingly unable to shift her attention to work that needed to be done.

I'll ask her about recording lectures. I hadn't thought about that. Can you explain me more how that worked for you? Do you have the same problem in all classes, or is it easier to focus in classes that you are very interested in?

I did and still to this day do volunteer work as well, but only 3 days out of the week. It sounds like she has gone through similar experiences with the online thing, I used to be an avid game player in college and play 3-4 hours a day after doing my homework, naturally this made my aunt very angry that I did not contribute to the household. Thank goodness I quit playing games, now I play guitar, substituted one interest for another.

As for classes, the recording might of made the difference on the final. I was doing nutrition, and one thing I had trouble with was Insulin-Glucagon Homeostasis and I had a recorder that recorded the lectures by the dates I recorded them. So when I went back to recording and my notes I could hear how the teacher described it and read how the book/notes described it. It also refreshed me on anything that might of went over my head, just any little detail that might of thrown me off, made me a great test taker.

How she learns might be different than how I learn but this is what worked for me. Bottom line, you have to get this stuff done as fast as you get it was my way of tackling it.

I have a 19 year old son with AS and he is in his 2nd year at college. He did not have an IEP in high school either, only a 504 plan. Most colleges have an office that is for students with disabilities. The first semester was kind of tough because it was new and he was learning to organize things. He is also living in the dorm and up until that point he never even spent the night away from home. He chose to do it though and he is only about 30 miles away from home so he can come home whenever he wants.
When he started the office that I was telling you about assigned him a caseworker. They helped him get all of his books on tapes, he is able to take a digital recorder to classes with him to record lectures (and make his own notes at a later time), He can have extended time on tests in a quiet place where he is alone and not distracted. At teh beginning of every semester the caseworker writes a letter to each professor that he will have telling them about his Asperger's and Tourettes (he has that as well). The letter lists all of his accomodations and asks each professor for recommendations for other accomodations. The letters are given to my son and he gives them to each professor the first day of class. It has been a great experience for him. The first week he stayed at home 4 out of 6 nights, the we helped him most of his pictures and stuff from his bedroom to the dorm. This really helped and he started coming home on the weekends only. Now after 2 years he is only coming home about once a month. He has made friends and I could not be happier for him. The main thing I am trying to tell you is that there are people on campus to help, you just have to find out where they are located.

A really important thing that I forgot to mention is through some help with his doctor he is a on a regular medication to help him with the anxiety.

I receive accommodations in college (I'm a 19 year old female also). I had accommodations in high school, but I didn't have an IEP. I was receiving accommodations for medical reasons (no AS diagnosis at that time, my school still doesn't know of the diagnosis). I would speak with vocational rehabilitation and see if they could be of any help to you. I went to them and they said they would be able to get accommodations for me plus help me financially. I don't know what kind of college she's at (I didn't read the whole thread, may have been mentioned) but you may have to look for a school with a better program...that might not be too bad of an idea if she says she's missing high school. Could mean she doesn't enjoy this particular university too much. I go to junior college right now and our disability services is pretty bad. I'm going to a 4 year school next year and they are supposed to have a much better program there.

Two big things pop into my mind...how big are her classes, and what is her interest level in the classes she is taking/her major? The bigger the class, the harder it is to learn and focus. In smaller classes, there are fewer distractions, more attention from the prof, more accountability for being there, and also more social interactions, as someone very quiet is more likely to be noticed by others.

Also, is she interested in her classes? Try to take advantage of her aspie interests, and guide her towards a career that includes this. I know classes I was interested in were much easier for me to stay focused on and to actually go to or do the work.