Autism and/or ADHD program results

Parents Forum
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I decided to re-post this in the parents forum since it didn’t get any response in the LD section.

Doing a bit of proactive research. I would love to hear from parents of students on the autism spectrum and/or adhd about programs they are currently/previously utilizing for their students. DS attends a rigorous high school and has a couple of years to go but I am not feeling confident at this point that he will be prepared.

Organization and planning are still in the immature stages. That combined with being away from home, advocating for himself well, life skills and social life are very daunting to me. I know these programs tend to be very costly but have they borne fruit?

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I’ve been around the forums here for a while, because my son is on the autism spectrum and has executive function difficulties. I regret to say that in my experience here, students with executive function difficulties do not fare well in their freshman years of college, especially if they are at a residential school, according to the reports of their families. Crashing and burning, I’m sorry to say, is common.

Colleges expect freshman to be able to do things that kids with executive function disabilities are often unable to do.

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Mitchell College in CT offers a transitional program…a year long…to help student learn how to live independently of their parents. It helps learn strategies for organization not just for school, but for living independently in general.

It’s not cheap…but is well regarded.

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A private college in my area offers the following: https://edgewood.edu/admissions/cutting-edge-program. I don’t have personal experience with it but am sharing the info in case you’d like to look into it.

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My kid wobbled big time frosh year at an intensive top school. She took advantage of almost every scrap of support offered, especially in the areas she struggled in, and graduated on time. Her grades weren’t tip top, but she passed and got into PhD programs with funding in her major. Her organization skills still resemble an octopus falling out of a tree. But they have gotten better over the years. (Yesterday she was pulled over for a rolling stop, and she had taken my advice the week before and printed her new car insurance card out — which a few years ago it would have taken lots of reminders, but not this time).

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Here is the link to the Mitchell program.

http://mitchell.edu/thames/

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One program that offers a lot of excellent supports is WKU’s KAP. https://www.wku.edu/kapcircleofsupport/

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Beacon College (in Florida) and Landmark College (in Vermont) are specifically geared to students with learning differences and students on the spectrum.

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RIT has spectrum support https://www.rit.edu/studentaffairs/ssp/

So perhaps look in the college specific subforums for the colleges mentioned (if there is one) and ask this question there as well

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Went through this last year. There are quite a few schools with robust programs on the spectrum, and I’ve heard anecdotally of schools that do not have a formal program but are very helpful through the Office of Disabilities.

We sent our son across the country (we’re in CA, he goes to UCONN). So far (about a month), my son has replaced his keys twice, lost his retainer, and lost a textbook. So, the process is expensive, but other than that, he seems to be managing okay. He has friends on his floor who he plays D&D with, he has gotten involved with one of the religious organizations on campus. My son made a lot of progress in the last few months of senior year. He also attended a program in the summer of his Junior year from College Learning Experience (CLE) which made a huge difference in his confidence in being able to do it.

Happy to share my experience. I only spoke to people from RIT and UCONN’s programs, but I do have a list of programs across the country that sound similar. There seemed to be a difference between RIT and UCONN’s approach, and I was more comfortable with UCONN’s

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It is really going to boil down to individual deficits. How individuals on the spectrum function is highly variable based on severity, comorbid conditions, etc. For example, @“Cardinal Fang”'s description of his ds’s experience does not match our ds’s. Nor does @intparent’s. All of us have different kids with different things going on.

You are really going to need to seek out programs that specifically address whatever supports you believe your student would benefit from.

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I have it on good authority that Cardinal Fang is a woman.

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What are your son’s interests? My ADHD kid with CS interest is thriving at a small, technical college with a very good disabilities office . The university is respectable, but not highly intensive. He improved in senior year of high school, and he took a transferable summer course at a community college before freshmen year. This eased him into the college atmosphere and lightened his courseload during his freshmen year. Each kid is different - my kid’s issues are more with EF skills than social functioning.

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Landmark also has a summer program to help kids transition to college, I believe, and other programs too.

In the Northeast, I have heard that Curry and New England College are both good. Lesley has a program but not sure what the target group is,meaning level of functioning.

By all means, once accepted somewhere, get documentation to the Office for Disabilities, but in our experience there role is mainly providing letters for the student to take to professors, with whom the student negotiates. Some schools DO list accommodations granted but some only say the student is registered.

Often other administrators such as deans, advisors and health professionals make thinks actually work.

My kid with some of these issues had a courseload reduced freshman year, made it through, then came home, worked and did community college and is now in an adult learner/degree completion program at Lesley (not targeted at students with disabilities at all, but flexible for those who are working or have families). She takes two classes and works. She loves to work. She is almost a senior now and is thriving, working in her field finally, just recently.

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No autism/Asperger’s among the kids – though it is safe to say that my father (a brilliant theoretical physicist) was definitely Aspergers and I see elements of that in two of my siblings.

ADHD – one kid diagnosed; the other kid likely. We hired a coach for the second kid (who was/is severely dyslexic) but also had zero organizational ability. He and the coach would estimate the time required for tasks and then plan out the work for the week. Over time, he internalized some of that. By the end of HS, he was managing his time pretty well and getting help when he needed it but the coach continued working with him over distance while he was in college – she had access to his emails so she could see when new assignments had come in, etc. He also began taking Adderall late in HS or early in college and finds that helps him somewhat. He chose to attend an elite LAC – we picked it because a) there were no distribution requirements and b) they seemed to be interested in working with him. His advisor (the Dean of Freshman) looked at his proposed schedule for the first semester of freshman year and said, “This is too hard. Go back and make it easier. I want you to learn to be successful here.” The Disabilities Services Office was incredibly helpful, in part because he was proactive about his needs. He did incredibly well at the LAC and started a company during the fall of his senior year. He realized he was a good motivator but not a good manager and, as he and we knew, not good at the practical details of life. He left to go to grad school (MBA and MS in Data Science. In his last year of grad school, he started a new company and brought in a business school classmate to be CEO (so he could do a lot of the detail-oriented stuff). At my suggestion, he agreed with his partner that the company would hire an executive assistant who would help my son with organizational tasks – both personal and company-specific. This is what I do for myself and it is working very well for him. I believe he takes Adderall but not every day.

The kid with the explicit ADHD diagnosis (for most of her childhood, she could not ever stay seated during dinner and we’d be treated to a floor show) didn’t like working with the coach but starting in middle school, we sent her to private schools (not oriented towards kids with disabilities) that offered coaching for kids. In HS, she found her weekly planning meeting and study halls helpful, but we saw a big gain in organization and continual improvement in grades when she began taking Ritalin (huge improvement). She chose to attend a big university (not my suggestion) and, with prodding from me, signed up to get a coach (an older student in her field) who would meet with her each week and plan out her work. This was helpful. However, she transferred (because she wanted to change fields) at the end of her first semester to a smaller school where a) the courses tied to her strengths and interests; and b) in the first couple of years, the competition was a lot weaker than her first school. She completed a five year BSN/MSN degree and began working as a nurse practitioner at age 23-4. She loves it and her first job (one year) was at a really well-managed set of clinics that had a staff of three for her. She moved closer to boyfriend (and home) and now works in her second year for much less well-organized place and needed to push for a better medical assistant. She still takes Ritalin each day she works, I believe.

The other thing that was helpful for my son was taking a gap year. A little extra brain development seemed to help the executive function.

So, we didn’t avail ourselves of LD-related programs like Landmark (except for 4th-5th grade for our son) but created scaffolding for them, helped them make life choices that played to their strengths, and have watched them assemble the scaffolding around themselves as they’ve become adults. Both kids love their work and are happy with the choices they made about schools and life as far as I can tell.

I hope this is helpful.

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Coaches are too expensive for some families, mine included. And at some point, parents don’t make good ones either:) I think coaches would be incredibly helpful and wish there were volunteers!

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One of each here.

In general I absolutely agree with the statement that each students needs are wildly different and you really need to explore what works for your child.

My ADHD son was diagnosed sophomore year of HS though in reality we always knew but it had been manageable without treatment. When his rigor hit a tipping point, he requested assessment and treatment. Freshman and Sophomore years of HS were rough but he improved once on a solid treatment plan. For him medication made an amazing difference in schoolwork but it was not without consequences that he is still dealing with. The side effects messed up his eating (common) and actually impacted his relationship with food overall. He has changed medications to a short acting one that works better with the college schedule. While he does not use services, he does avail himself of professors hours, TA hours, study groups and really all resources out there to help him as he recognizes his tendency to be easily distracted and lose focus, these groups help keep him on task and he had a very successful freshman year and is now in his sophomore year.

My current HS senior was misdiagnosed as ADHD in his Sophomore year, but is actually HFA/Aspergers (though Aspergers isn’t given as a diagnosis anymore) with Executive Functioning issues. We’ve always assumed he fell on the spectrum, as did his teachers who would make comments occasionally, but never had diagnosed. Many of his issues seemed personality driven but in retrospect are very EF related. The ADHD misdiagnosis, at first seemed to help (meds) but became disastrous and an absolutely horrible first 2/3 of junior year at which point we had him retested. He does have a 504 but as he has high rigor and is considered gifted in the HS’s eyes…they really don’t do much at all for accommodations as frankly they don’t see the need. Though he might not be performing to potential, he is still above average from their perspective (aka not failing). Many of the issues (when he had the ADHD diagnosis) were perceived to be personality driven versus a 504 issue, such as refusal to do homework or turn it in when he didn’t see the value in it, but then would test well and so would still generally do ok grade wise.

The new diagnosis, combined with weekly therapy and some very different strategies around homework has truly turned his life around in a way that is remarkable. 6 months ago I was thinking we were looking at CC, a branch campus or maybe a gap year and having fears he’d never live on his own. Today we may be looking at a school across the country and he’s happier, more settled, more independent and more grounded than I could have imagined during those dark days. He still does not identify with his HFA diagnosis but as the root of his issues really is EF focused, we are ok keeping that as the focal area. We did look at EF coaching and I think it’s a valuable option for many but the weekly therapy really has been incredibly important in his improvement as has been the consistency of that relationship and the weekly appointment.

For him, as he has embraced the EF diagnosis and worked very hard at strategies to improve that (and prove to mom he didn’t need EF coaching!), we are focused on schools that have strong support programs if he needs them, OR, staying nearby and continuing with the therapist he has. If he does go away, he will be required to register with disability services, even if he never uses it and we will either hope he can skype with the current therapist or find him one at school. I am hopeful. He is off to a wonderful start this year and I feel his college list matches well with his needs and abilities.

So, all that said, it can be tough, it can be a rollercoaster and boy…they can grow and change. Dark really does not always stay dark, but you have to work at it and more importantly, so do they.

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Thank you all for your comments. It is very helpful to hear about other experiences. Even though each student is completely unique, it is possible to glean things related to your situation.

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May I ask which LAC did your son attend, currently in the process of looking for my ADHD/Poor Executive functioning kid who is intelligent but very disorganized. Has had difficulty making friends too. Decent grades and good ACT scores. Currently looking at very small LAC schools in Tri state area of NY. Thanks

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If people are still reading this thread, I am trying to help my student decide between Uconn and RIT. Uconn was not my dream school for him but their Beyond Access has been unbelievably responsive to my inquiries and their program appears to be custom made for my son. They even allowed me to come in an dmeet with them and when I did there was no hard sell but they said all the right things w/o me even having to ask. RIT, while my son’s dream school, has a spectrum support program but they didn’t even want me to stop by. They said there was “nothing to see”. They didn’t seem to pick up on the fact that our family’s decision would be contingent on the ASD support the college would have in place. Could anyone here chime in a let me know what you know with regard to Uconn vs. RIT? Oh he wants to do Aerospace Engineering which is stronger at RIT than Uconn. I think. I mean, I don’t even understand that much about getting an engineering degree except that it sounds awfully hard and the student has no life. He woudl not consider any LACs though he applied to Union and Syracuse. Got into both those but Uconn and RIT are cheaper, and have the ASD support. Help!

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