<p>That’s great – I’m glad you took that trip and got to see firsthand. </p>
<p>You might want to take a look at some of the postings about issues Aspie students have experienced in this year’s (college) Class of '13 thread – particularly since December, since there are a number of parents who have some potentially relevant experience.</p>
<p>Ask about a wellness or substance-free dorm or floor. Usually students sign an alcohol and drug-free contract. It helps those not interested in drinking to find others who are of like minds.</p>
<p>thanks for the advice. i will look at the posts of last years ‘aspie’ class.</p>
<p>Do not expect colleges to be as helpful to kids with aspergers syndrome as your high school was. There is beginning to be a backlash in higher ed against a perceived over diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders. Schools, even the disability services offices, are reluctant to provide services to people who seemingly are high functioning and may just apear to lack social skills or organizational ability. They have more obviously severely disabled students to attend to. I doubt you’ll find many college professors willing to waive proper spelling and grammar. This is, after all, college. Spelling counts.</p>
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<p>Since those are the main symptoms of Asperger’s, in other words they are reluctant to provide services to students with Asperger’s. Now me, I think people with epilepsy ought to try harder not to have seizures. And those lazy kids in wheelchairs should just get up and walk, dammit. I can walk, so they should be able to walk too. Why are we coddling them?</p>
<p>Sorry if you disagree, but 1) There is an epidemic of Asperger’s and Autism being over-diagnosed in elementary schools and high schools. High-functioning Aspergers’s (or aspies as parents so lovingly like to call it) is a wonderful way for parents to give a label to their kids who simply are awkward socially or don’t fit the strict social norms. Isn’t it nice to have a great label that gets them extra time and attention and gives the school extra funding? Believe me, as someone with a family member who has real Autism, college isn’t even on the radar screen. In fact, independent living isn’t even on the radar screen. The fact that he was socially promoted and given a high school diploma with barely more than an 8th grade reading level and a 1st grade math level (at age 20, but still …) still bothers me. 2) People with epilepsy and mobility problems are not being excused from having to spell correctly or use proper grammar in college work. I cannot think that any disability that should require this exception. Almost every college professor will bristle at this request. If you can’t spell correctly or use proper grammar, you should be marked down for it or you don’t belong in college. 3) What does having poor social skills have to do with being given extra time on tests or being excused from doing quality work?</p>
<p>^ Thank you.</p>
<p>The problem I have with waiving course requirements or other “accomodations” for people with “high functioning autism” or Aspergers is they can’t do some of the things that students are expected to master as part of their education. The “executive functions” are skills that employers expect that college graduates have and are part of what separates the trade workers and office workers at my company. The trade workers (many who earn more than me) are not expected to schedule time, make appointments, or other things. They don’t have to have those skills. The office workers do. Without the “executive function” ability, the office workers would not be able to do their job.</p>
<p>An epiletic whose seizures are not under control will be denied a drivers license. Why? Because the ability to control a vehicle in motion is an essential skill for driving. </p>
<p>A person in a wheelchair will be denied to work on a Navy submarine because the mobility is essential to the job. A person in a wheelchair can’t function as a Navy seaman aboard a submarine.</p>
<p>The same goes with college education. A person with a learning disability that prevents them from scheduling time, from asking for help when necessary, and doing other essential tasks that are part of college should not be permitted to graduate. A degree indicates the student has mastered those tasks and the inability to master those tasks should mean no degree is granted.</p>
<p>Benny and BigTrees-- Why don’t you go and start a thread called “Why I don’t believe in accomodations for Asperger’s” And play whatever games you want to play there. </p>
<p>The civil rights 504 law provides protection for these kids from people with your prejudicial thinking. </p>
<p>I mean, honestly, who even needs to be able to spell to have a job these days? When was the last time someone asked someone to take a spelling test? What you need to be able to do is use the word processing program which will spell check and grammar check anything. It’s like thinking someone is going to go in and add up a couple of columns of numbers by hand, these days.</p>
<p>Low level cognitive functions, at best.</p>
<p>Someone ought to write a book, “Why We Would Never Learn What Einstein Knew, Now.”</p>
<p>Einstein had to have someone else do his calculations for him because he wasn’t great with those types of details. Honestly.</p>
<p>My kid doesn’t have aspergers, but Bill Gates does.</p>
<p>Let’s get our terminology straight. According to this website (<a href=“Self Advocacy: Know Yourself, Know What You Need, Know How to Get It by Nancy Suzanne James - Wrightslaw):%5B/url%5D”>Self Advocacy: Know Yourself, Know What You Need, Know How to Get It by Nancy Suzanne James - Wrightslaw):</a></p>
<p>Accommodations are tools to help accomplish a goal that do not change the integrity of the task (books on tape, extra time for test, copies of handouts before a meeting, editor, use of a calculator, etc.). Accommodations compensate for disabilities, and vary from person to person based on the type of disability and the degree to which it interferes with daily activities. </p>
<p>Modifications are alterations to assignments that do change the overall task; for example, writing a two-page report instead of a four-page report. It is important to keep in mind that nearly all employers and most educational institutions (colleges and universities) do not provide modifications.</p>
<p>I am generally not opposed to accomodations that are reasonable and fair to other students. I am opposed to modifications where someone with Aspergers is expected to a different task than other students in the class.</p>
<p>@bigtrees and benny1: I think both your posts show a real ignorance about what asperger’s and autism spectrum disorders actually are, and are somewhat brusque and cruel. As with any problem there is some mis-diagnosis, but anyone who actually understands this issue knows that recently there has been an explosion of autism and autism spectrum children born in the US. This can’t correctly be attributed to mis-diagnosis. There is an actual huge increase and because we don’t know what causes autism, we don’t know what has caused the large increase. Part of it is definitely a better understanding of what autism means, and what it entails, which has helped identify autistic and asperger’s sufferers who were going untreated previously. But part of it is definitely an unexplained increase. </p>
<p>And bigtrees, your analogy is extremely faulty. There is no way to have a person in a wheelchair work on a submarine without a complete re-design of the sub. However, there is a way for a person with bad organizational skills due to an illness to succeed at college witih very minimal effort on behalf of the school. It doesn’t require a whole re-design of education, it requires some single rooms and a very small disability services office.</p>
<p>I don’t think any colleges provide actual modifications anyway, with the exception of the occaisonal class substitution…a cultural class for a language requirement, or they allow computer language classes or sign language…other than that I’ve never even heard of a college providing what you term a modification, anyway. </p>
<p>A parent hiring an outside coach or organizational expert or tutor to work with someone with aspergers seems very doable to me, though, since I’ve noticed what most asperger’s parents are actually worried about is someone doing the home stuff more than the school stuff. fwiw.</p>
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<p>Yes, but what Cardinal Fang describes as what is needed for Aspergers is not a “small disability office and some single rooms.” What she describes is extra time on exams, having an advocate tell the professors what you need for you, having someone schedule your time, call to wake you up in the morning, tell you to go to bed at night, tell you to take your mediciation, pull your internet connection when you refuse to go to bed, waive classes that you say you say you can’t pass, etc. </p>
<p>This goes far beyond “a small disability office and a few single rooms”</p>
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<p>No, I don’t think they do either. but some of the people on here have been demanding that the school waives 4 semester sequences in foreign language, exempt all writing requirements, etc, etc. Some of the people on here have been wanting serious modifications of the curriculum to fit their needs. I think that’s unreasonable.</p>
<p>Making simple accomodations is fine, like replacing a foreign language with sign language, or exempting a verbal requirement for a person who can’t speak, or allowing a person to use a keyboard instead of writing is they have a writing difficulty.</p>
<p>Accomodations in writing for a gifted dysgraphic include using assistive technology so that they can filter work through the exact same technology they would use in an office. Not doing this is like requiring a handwritten instead of a printed paper…silly. A school substituting a language requirement for a computer language requirement or a sign language requirement is not a modification…it’s an accomodation.</p>
<p>I think schools ought to offer coaches and advocates for hire to parents of kids with aspergers. I actually think the system would work better if they worked for the family, anyway. Personal assistants…it’s a common occupation.</p>
<p>I don’t know your son, but as a psychologist if he has had a recent evaluation I would certainly discuss the options with whomever did the evaluation as well as with the diasabilities office at all of the schools. I would think that a smaller school would be of some benefit in that it would provide more personal relationships and thatmight be useful for your son as well as being less overwherlming if he has any sort of sensory issues. Muhlenburg is a very nice school and could be a very nice fit while I think Delaware and College of N.J. and Binghamton might be overwhelming places that he could potentially get lost in … that would be one of my biggest concerns and of course I say this as a stranger who knows nothing about your son … good luck.</p>
<p>I think this has already been said, but from what I have heard from parents on the subject is that it has less to do with the size of the school and whatever buzzwords they use to describe their community and far more to do with the response level of the actually disabilities office. Please look and ask about specific issues and any accommodations your child has had up to this point.</p>
<p>In fact, when it comes to CTCL’s, some will change a kid with Asperger’s life for the worse not better.</p>
<p>while the response of the disabilities office is certainly crucial it is very likely that the size of the environment will also make a difference as well</p>
<p>Well, to use terms correctly, the word “accommodations” properly refers to the employment setting. In the educational milieu, the proper term is “academic adjustments.” “Modifications” are part of academic adjustments.</p>
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<p>And BTW, larger schools have larger professional staff in their disability offices and substantially more resources available to address disability issues.</p>
<p>BTW, larger institutions, depending upon their ability to put into action their plans for accomodating the needs of individual students can be overwheleming and overstimulating as well as isolating students who have diffiuclties with interpersonal and frequently sensory issues (Aspergers) …</p>
<p>@bigtrees- Having extra time on tests is a normal accommodation made not just for Asperger’s students, but students with a wide array of learning disabilities, such as people with dyslexia. I think it’s easy to criticize if you don’t have to struggle with it/don’t know anyone who struggles with it, but I think it shows a callous disregard for the needs of others who are not as fortunate as yourself to be born healthy and able to learn without accommodation. I don’t know who these “Some people” are that you talk about, that are having people call their kids to tell them to get up and go to bed, but I strongly suspect that that’s just your own personal bias and ignorance without real placement in fact. </p>
<p>And people such as yourself, who don’t understand what Asperger’s is and tend to leap to outlandish conclusions are exactly the reason why you need disability office advocates to discuss with professors what it is and isn’t and what you need and don’t need. It’s as much to make sure kids aren’t gaming the system as it is to protect them from general ignorance.</p>