This week I read the article entitled, "Interdisciplinary Support Services for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders". The article describes a grant-funded program at an urban four-year college, developed to assist students with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The pilot was created because there is and will continue to be an increase of individuals with high functioning autism and Asperger syndrome attending college. The author states, "...colleges should prepare to serve this growing population" (Longtin, 2014). Not many colleges are preparing themselves, the few that are preparing themselves working on the pilot stages of the programs. This is due mostly because of the high cost the program encompasses. It is a program that involves many resources and services. This program involves family support, educators and therapist. Most importantly though, the individual with ASD/AS need to self-advocate for him/herself accommodations to be offered.
For this pilot, five individuals participated, four males, one female. Their ages ranged from 21-27. The mentors who participated for the pilot became aware of the program through flyers. They are all graduate students studying Mental Health Counseling, School Counseling, and Speech-Language Counseling. The five mentors were chosen through a series of interviews and recommendations. Each college students was paired up with a mentor. They would individually on a weekly basis to "provide guidance on college life, social pragmatics, executive function, study habits, relationship building, job search and self advocacy," (Longtin, 2014) The mentors were also able to direct their mentees to appropriate campus services.
The pilot also provided two half-day in-service workshops for everyone who would be participating in the pilot on the campus. The titles of the workshops were "An introduction to Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism" and how to Support College Students on the Autism Spectrum". Both workshops were given by psychologist with expertise in HFA/AS who had previously developed various training courses to assist theses students.
Overall, he pilot was a success, students said in a survey that they would choose to continue in a program like this if the program continued. The program helped them have success in school and in their college social life. They appreciated the access to the support services involved with the program. The article mentions how to incoming freshmen enrolled at that college because they found out about this program. The mentors also saw this pilot as a beneficial experience. They felt they gained experience in their field, by making real life connections with their mentees and working along with the other support staff on campus. The support staff that was included in the two half-day in-service workshops also agreed that they found the workshops prepared to work with students with HFA/AS. "Faculty and clinical support staff across a variety of disciple expressed appreciation for a greater opportunity to collaborate" (Longtin, 2014).
The challenge is to keep the pilot going. This program only lasted four months. Although the mentors did deem their experience beneficial, they ask for more support to be provided. Also, the author suggest that students with HFA/AS should be monitored throughout their college career and afterwards to examine the amount of retention they've acquired with the program.
I truly enjoyed reading this article, the promising idea it offers. My hope is that more colleges do start adopting this kind of pilot, and making it a permanent program. I think that educators, as well as students, and mentors all benefit for such an experience. The one word I kept seeing in this article was "collaboration". When a group of people from different sectors in life come together to share their experience for the benefit of other, truly amazing things happen. As I read this, my mind kept trailing off, why wait to have mentor programs until college about in high schools, middle schools, intermediate schools? Wouldn't teachers, students with and without disabilities benefit. One Common Core Standard is all about college-readiness. I know, just like the article mentions, it does take a lot of time to prepare, money to get everything together, it takes a lot of work and effort. There is this quote by St. Francis of Assisi that says, "Start by doing the necessary, then do what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible" which give me hope. Programs like these need to continue, need to grow, to become permanent for the benefit of many.
Longtin, S. (2014.) Interdisciplinary support services for students with autism spectrum disorders.
Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 23(3). Pages 333-342. retrieved from
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This is very intriguing to me. I have never really considered what college would be like for a person with ASD. I can imagine that navigating social circumstances in college would be a challenge, both for the person with ASD and their peers. I think the idea of having a mentor is also very interesting. It would be curious to see how having a mentor following a person with ASD through their entire college career would be. That would be a huge responsibility for the mentor, but could also be a great relationship if well matched. Did the students with ASD attending college live on campus? This article definitely provides a lot of "food for thought".
ReplyDeleteThis article is very timely. I agree that colleges need to get ready for an influx of students with ASD because of it's growing level of incidence. I just went to an IEP meeting last week and the focus was transition planning for postsecondary options for the student. I would love to see the study carried out for a longer period of time. I definitely think one of the positives of this study was having student mentors. I also can see why these mentors asked for more support. Since the challenges that students with ASD face have a lot to do with social and adaptive living skills, it has most likely taken a whole team of people to help students through their entire education journey. I can see why the people involved in this program felt the support needed to be greater for it to be a success considering that the full multidisciplinary decision team that followed them on that educational journey has been reduced to a mentor.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a very interesting article. Students with ASD will need accommodations when they reach college. I think that it is very important that research is being conducted about making the necessary accommodations for those students. I also really like the idea of having a college mentor. Starting college can be very stressful for people and a mentor program would be a great way to support ASD students.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great article. I never really considered the idea that more of these students will be in need of supports through college and that their numbers will be growing. Not only do they need support, but college and university faculty and staff need to be prepared for them as well. It is always difficult to organize a program and get it funded, but hopefully there will be more programs and services like this in the future.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of when I went to college. The Office of Multicultural Affairs offered a mentoring programming for minority students on campus. I imagine the program discussed in this article similar to my experience. We were set up with a mentor (sophomore or junior or senior). We met on a weekly basis. She referred me to different facilities when I needed help. She introduced me to her other mentees and we participated in social events together. Thanks to that program I really loved my experience. I commuted so having that part with OMSA really enhance my experience there. I loved it so much I became a mentor the next year.
ReplyDeleteLike I mentioned before, I really do home more programs like these continue to grow and become permanent on campus.
Great extension of the article to think about how this type of model could be helpful at ALL levels of education!
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