Realizing the College Dream with Autism or Asperger Syndrome

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Ann Palmer. Realizing the College Dream with Autism or Asperger Syndrome

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Realizing the College Dream with Autism or Asperger Syndrome

A Parent’s Guide to Student Success

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In addition to helping Eric, the outreach teacher was a support for me personally. Here was someone I didn’t have to educate about my son. He already knew the uniqueness of these students and nothing surprised him. He helped me to see some of Eric’s strengths that I hadn’t been able to see. He also served as a go-between for me with the teachers. If Eric were getting bad grades or if I were seeing problems Eric was having in the classroom, I would call the outreach teacher. He would then contact the teacher to discuss how things were going and offer solutions. The teachers could talk about their frustrations or whatever with the outreach teacher, something they would not feel comfortable doing with a parent. Teachers also seemed to respond better to suggestions from another teacher with experience working with these students than they did to a parent’s suggestions. My relationships with Eric’s teachers over the years were less complicated because of the support of the outreach teacher. At difficult IEP meetings, the outreach teacher was extremely helpful. There were several times over the years that he would help me defend Eric’s need for services when the school would try to remove supports. He helped the other members of the team understand that Eric was doing well because of the supports and that to take them away would be a mistake.

Eric continued with inclusion throughout the remainder of elementary school with very few significant problems. The teachers and the principal were supportive most of the time. School was not easy for Eric and he didn’t enjoy going to school. He had to work hard to hold it together during the day. The numbers of kids in the class and the noise and activity levels were difficult for him to handle sometimes. Luckily, the academics were fairly easy for Eric overall but his writing was very slow and made it hard for him to keep up. Homework was long and tedious and Eric had problems getting himself organized. He required one-toone help at home with most assignments.

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