The Autism College Connection

While it’s important to keep the school focused on academics, just know that academics alone are not enough. Many of my clients are parents who proudly tell me that their kids have Asperger’s. It’s not autism, they say. They’ll tell me that their kid got all As in college and graduated from a great college.

All of that is FANTASTIC. I love those super-smart kids. When I was a college professor, they were a joy to have in my class, because they always did the readings and remembered all the details. They sat in the front row of my class and always raised their hands.

But those parents call me for a reason. They are at loose ends because their kids finish college and can’t find a job. Their autistic issues were completely ignored in high school and college, and now those neglected problems need to be addressed.

Maybe they have too much anxiety to manage a job. Maybe they have poor executive functioning skills and can’t deal with an open-ended job search. Perhaps they can’t make eye contact during an interview. Overwhelmed with the next step in life, these unemployed twenty-year-olds retreat to their bedrooms and play video games all day. Parents thought their kids weren’t disabled enough to qualify for support services, so they never applied. Now, these young adults don’t have access to the disability safety net. It’s a bad situation.

Some autistic kids are extremely excellent at school. They enjoy the structure of the classroom and the predictability of a school day. They enjoy learning information, particularly in their narrow interest area. Frankly, a lot of college professors are a little autistic themselves, so narrow interests and poor social skills are not unusual on a college campus. However, after college, the expectations for blending into the neurotypical populations are much higher.

So, deal with the autistic stuff, too. Make sure that these issues are recognized by your school and are included as goals in the IEP. If your district is very resistant to educating older autistic students, you might need to bring in an advocate or an attorney to help your student.