<p>So you have a dean who says no problem, come back to college, and a psychologist who says college isn’t possible for an Aspie so… he either can’t have Aspergers, or he can’t go to college? Sorry you are getting such unhelpful advice.</p>
<p>When the dean recommended against a medical leave, did he explain why?</p>
<p>It seems clear this educational psychologist is clueless. On CC alone, there are several posters who are successful college students with Aspergers or parents of such students. Find someone else. I don’t think you should be limited to recommendations from the college. Cast a wide net to find the best in the field in your area.</p>
<p>And I don’t see how the testing can be completed (only a few hours can be done at a time and sessions have to be scheduled around the tester’s availability), recommendations developed (which will have to be in the form of a detailed written report), and a plan agreed to by you, your son and the school (this could be a negotiation) and then implemented in time for the start of the next semester (which is in a couple weeks, no?) And my experience with accommodations at the high school level tells me that having a plan on file and having a plan actually implemented are two very different things. (Example: My D’s high school plan allowed her to be given handouts of materials put up on the screen in class–neurotypical kids had to take notes from them. She had to fight for this right with many teachers who consistently “forgot” to make copies, claimed the copier wasn’t working, you name it, but clearly just found the process to be an extra pain in the neck they tried to avoid.)</p>
<p>On the subject of precognition, I’ll just say there’s there’s a reason we have the word “coincidence”.</p>
<p>Find another psychologist. (Crossposted, MommaJ ) Seriously. This one doesn’t know enough. I know a lot of adult Aspies with college degrees, including my brother and (I daresay) myself, plus several friends, plus several children of friends. </p>
<p>It doesn’t make sense to rule out ADHD without considering Aspergers. They have a lot in common, so a competent diagnostician will do a differential diagnosis.</p>
<p>Wondering if this is a case of selective hearing by the OP. The info she is relaying from the edu. psychologist is hogwash. So much so that it’s hard to believe that this could possibly have been said by an edu. psychologist.</p>
<p>The Dean and the Advisor have voted against filing for a leave of absence. Again, this doesn’t make any sense. If the Dean and the Advisor were made aware of all the info posted by the OP on CC, there is no way a reputable Dean or Advisor would not advise a medical leave for this student. Again, it’s up to YOU (actually, your son) to make the call on taking a medical leave. Sending him back for the Spring with the hope of a magical positive outcome is unrealistic.</p>
<p>It’s like talking to a brick wall. OP, selective hearing is not going to change the reality of the situation. Deal with it head on and listen to Cardinal Fang. </p>
<p>I’ll back out of the thread now and just sit back and read how this plays out.</p>
<p>Wait, what? The dean and the advisor say not to take a medical leave, even though there is no medical diagnosis yet? On the basis of what, exactly, other than tuition dollars? How can they know your son shouldn’t take a medical leave when they don’t know what is going on with him?</p>
<p>I remember all too well my son’s first college assuring me to my face that they absolutely could deal with his Aspergers and give him the support he needed. Ha ha ha ha, that didn’t go well. I don’t blame them, exactly, because they didn’t understand what they were getting in to and apparently didn’t read or didn’t believe the 12 page recommendations and diagnosis that we gave them. But I don’t think the dean and the advisor at UoP have the faintest idea of what they are doing either. There is not going to be any silver bullet that makes your son’s problems go away.</p>
<p>Hi all,
Yes, I think “find another psychologist” is great advice. I think from what I’ve put together from the mails that the Dean’s position is based upon their college set up. They’re set up for a year-year and bailing after one semester (even if bailing is common sense) doesn’t work with their administrative program. I’m not criticizing that:
the fact is that because we live in such a rural environment our only hope for testing is in a more populated area. I’ve beat the hedges here and come up empty.
DS wants to try again. He’s committed to study groups, testing, counseling and organizational counseling. The neuro psycologists are there, not at home. We don’t have an educational psychologist within 100 miles.
So, not a brick wall, simply a void of reasonable options. We’re timber farmers,with a few million dollars sunk into growing board feet of lumber. Not easily sold as a whole or a transportable business. We live far beyond utility lines…make our own electricity from solar, have no land lines and a trip to any even small town is once a week. What resources would we have here?</p>
<p>But seriously, does this HAVE to be about finding out if he has “Aspergers”, or could there be other, broader approaches to help with the problem?</p>
<p>BTW, that means that we’re land-rich, a lot of it inherited, and mostly cash poor. timber is a multi generational endeavor. And that we live at a high altitude and get snowed in for a week or two at a time in winter. Hard to keep appointments.</p>
<p>Yes, thank you, I did look into Capital autism. Their business model is early intervention, specifically pre-school. I appreciate the contact information, although the mention of “Passengers” completely went over my head.</p>
<p>Yes, shrinkwrap, we’re starting with AD and ADHD testing, even though his high school said that wasn’t the issue. We’ll move from there to the whole battery of diagnostic tests and a neuro psychological evaluation. In the meanwhile, DS has committed to disability counseling, organizational counseling, psychiatric counseling, peer counseling and study groups. He doesn’t drink, doesn’t date, plays few video games, wouldn’t even take an Advil when he had his wisdom teeth out. So, probably not an addiction issue.
He was doing fine, then crashed and burned in the last 4 weeks of his first semester. He’s also committed to contacting each professor for a play-by-play review of the fail. Any and all other suggestions are welcome.</p>
<p>And this is the one that makes me think DS is “for reals” He made a “to do list” which included laundry for the first time since school started (all together here, ewwww)</p>
<p>He’s lost weight, he’s weak, he’s emaciated, and you are convinced it’s a learning disability, or that mastering organizational skills in the next THREE DAYS will solve everything?? Classes at UOP begin on Monday, January 7th. Sudden, severe weight loss–what caused it? Depression, a physical ailment, what is it? I am stunned, really, I am. Neuropsychologist? Really? How about an MD, first, maybe an internist to do a full physical work-up, a neurologist to rule out a brain lesion or tumor, then a psychiatrist to screen for depression, bipolar, anxiety disorder? So, the dean doesn’t want him to take a leave of absence? Who cares what he thinks, your son isn’t his first concern. It doesn’t matter about college, when, or even if he gets his degree, not now, not at this school. You’re in California, for heaven’s sake, he can go to any number of excellent public universities, for a reasonable price, after he is well.</p>
<p>If your son turns out to be “Aspie”, surely that isn’t the cause of all his problems now. Never mind the F’s, why is he weak and emaciated? Why did he use such bad judgment (missing classes, not attending exams, not eating…)? Please get him the medical leave, and worry about college later. </p>
<p>AHST as a gifted homeschool student in a remote region DS tried most online programs (community college, BYU, Aleks, straiterline). We found that the online teaching protocol is still in it’s infancy and doesn’t have enough feedback for a real program. He gained some college math credits and filled prerequesites and then they topped out. Online calculus is still rare to find. Online English was a sadistic joke. The online classes for computer science were completely different from those classes taught by the same instructors in person. Very poor, and the structure for submitting finished projects provided by the JC was prone to erasing the submitted data with no record and no appeal. Straighterline was the worst, none of the support promised (no teacher, no online blackboard) and only two tests of 30 questions each to make up the entire grade. Language courses online weren’t worth the money. Some of these courses mentioned were thousands of dollars.</p>
<p>I have high hopes for online courses. I think that in 10 or 15 years they’ll be the standard. Just, we’ve been the guinea pigs and it was mostly (not all) a waste of time or lower level only. I’d recommend Aleks to anyone who’s willing to work 3x usual, it’s a mastery only program. DS’s high school uses it now after seeing him use it for his time there. You spend hour after hour daily on math but you know it forever and receive college credit. It only goes to pre-calc though.</p>
<p>Soprano,
Five pounds weight loss…on him it looks like a lot because he’s almost 6’. A tumor? Really? Honestly, at this point we’re still looking for horses, not zebras. His grades were great at mid-term, he lost it in the last 4 weeks when all of the projects and exams were due. He missed 3 classes all term, better than I ever managed. I can recall a Saturday morning class when I was in school, a Special Subject…I just finally started staying up all night. Turns out the professor loved my party clothes and gave me an automatic A for style.
I’m thinking we have the disability office, the Dean and DS’s adviser all saying that he can do this. They’re experts in this field. And being all about money? He’s a scholarship student, they’re paying him to be there. They’re betting their own money ($30K) that he can manage this.</p>
<p>Actually, if he had Aspergers, that would explain the lack of eating, the skipping exams and not handing in homework. It’s possible for an Aspie to be so disorganized and so not in touch with his body as to forget to eat, strange though it seems to me.</p>
<p>As for online courses, you’re in luck. Coursera, Udacity and edX offer free online college classes. Coursera has a fabulous set of computer science classes. Algorithms Part I would be good-- I have several friends who loved it, including one who will be the Head TA. </p>
<p>Coursera’s Game Theory starts Monday and is supposed to be a lot of fun. They’re offering the popular Science Fiction class again starting the end of January. The Udacity course on the Robotic Car is also one I highly recommend. Coursera also has two different introductory Calculus classes starting Monday. And Coursera has dozens of other courses.</p>
<p>Oh, and the CalTech Machine Learning class, called Learning from Data, starts Monday. It’s a parallel course: the online students and the Cal Tech undergrads do the same class at the same time. I’ve signed up for that one-- looks like a winner.</p>
<p>Your son wouldn’t get credit for those courses, but so what?</p>
<p>That’s what I thought when the disability office and everyone else at my son’s college said he could do this. They’re experts, I thought, they must know what they’re talking about. I was reassured.</p>
<p>They were not experts. They were experts in neurotypical kids, but my son is not neurotypical.</p>
) Seriously. This one doesn’t know enough. I know a lot of adult Aspies with college degrees, including my brother and (I daresay) myself, plus several friends, plus several children of friends. </p>
He made a “to do list” which included laundry for the first time since school started (all together here, ewwww)</p>