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How can professors support students with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs)?
Recently, the media has paid considerable and well-deserved attention to autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Consequently, many college professors must be wondering how likely it is that they will have a student with an ASD and how different could it possibly be than teaching and supporting students with specific learning disabilities? The short answers are: (1) highly likely; and (2) completely different.
The children who were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the 1990s are coming of age. Thanks to early identification and intervention with empirically based methods, the outcomes for these children are improving. Prior to the 1990s, families did not dare to dream about sending their children on the autism spectrum for further education. Now, not only can these families think about further education and training for their children, they can hope their children obtain a college degree. Currently, approximately one out of every 110 children is diagnosed with an ASD. Any lecture hall with over 100 students in it probably has at least one student on the autism spectrum.
Autism is considered a spectrum disorder, meaning that there is a wide range of abilities within this broad category. No two individuals with an autism spectrum disorder are exactly the same in the presentation of their disability. Collectively, these disorders are known as pervasive developmental disorders. ASDs are pervasive because they affect virtually every aspect of the person’s life. This is in stark contrast to most students that professors deal with, who have a specific learning disability that only affects the student in certain situations or in the performance of specific academic skills like reading or maths. ASDs are developmental disabilities because the disability stays with the individual as he or she goes through the life cycle and matures. It is not something that the person ‘out grows’, can be cured of, or taught remedial skills to ameliorate. They can, however, be taught coping strategies to help them navigate life, but the underlying condition will always be present.
The autism spectrum consists of childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD), Rett’s syndrome, autistic disorder, Asperger syndrome, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). Children with CDD or Rett’s syndrome have severe cognitive deficits and will not be ‘otherwise qualified’ to attend college. Autistic disorder is the most common and well known ASD. 75% of individuals with autistic disorder have not only cognitive deficits, but many are also non-verbal. However, 25% of students with a diagnosis of autistic disorder are within the ‘normal’ intelligence range on IQ tests. Students with Asperger syndrome often have average to superior IQ scores. They have superior vocabularies and incredible rote memory skills. PDD-NOS is a diagnostic category for those students who do not quite meet the threshold level for a definitive diagnosis of autistic disorder or Asperger syndrome.
For college professors, teaching a student on the autism spectrum will simultaneously be similar and completely different than teaching students with specific learning disabilities. Often students with ASDs also have specific learning disabilities and other conditions that professors have dealt with before, such as: attention deficit disorder (both with and without hyperactivity), anxiety and depression. Professors are habituated to working with the office of disability services at the college to provide reasonable accommodations to students with specific learning disabilities that are more academic in nature.
However, at the heart of autism spectrum disorders is a profound impairment in reciprocal social communication. The approach to teaching these students must be holistic in nature and must extend beyond the classroom to the university environment at large. Just like a student with a profound hearing loss needs a sign language interpreter, a student on the autism spectrum needs an interpreter of the social world.
The interventions and reasonable accommodations should involve a multidisciplinary team across academic departments and support services at the university. The student with an ASD will not have difficulty necessarily in academic subjects of interest and may have encyclopedic knowledge in a subject that can rival many professors. The student with an ASD will have difficulty with the unwritten social rules that most of us learn through osmosis or label as ‘common sense’. Their difficulties will arise in situations that are unstructured and require spontaneous, flexible thinking. Problems will manifest themselves in the residence halls, cafeterias and while working on group projects. Students on the autism spectrum can be very concrete, literal and naive. They often do not understand euphemisms and figures of speech. Many cannot read facial expressions or voice tone. Sarcasm is lost on these students. They have extreme difficulty with transitions or unexpected change, and can be viewed as rigid by others. Their peers perceive their behavior as odd. Consequently, they are often the victims of bullying. They are at high risk of being sexually assaulted or being accused of stalking a peer in which they have a romantic interest.
Professors will need to work very carefully with the office of disability services to implement reasonable accommodations for students with ASDs. Students with ASDs often have impairments in executive functioning. Executive functioning governs meta-organisation skills, such as having a sense of time. Helping the student programme a smart phone or calendar software to remind him or her to begin and, later, turn in parts of a complex assignment can be incredibly helpful. Breaking down complex assignments into discrete tasks with the student is another helpful reasonable accommodation that should be considered for some students.
Many students with ASDs have sensory integration dysfunction. These students are often overwhelmed with sensory input. For example, fluorescent lighting can be problematic for some students with sensory integration dysfunction either because of their inability to filter out the hum or the constant flicker of lights. Allowing the student to wear earphones or eye glasses with darkened lenses in the classroom is a reasonable accommodation to help them cope with the sensory overload. Some students m
ight need a sensory break where they could either put their head down on the table, be able to leave the classroom for a short period of time, or be able to walk in the back of the classroom. The single most important thing a professor can do for a student on the autism spectrum is to promote an atmosphere of tolerance and acceptance in the classroom and on campus. Students with ASDs who have made it to college are incredibly bright and creative individuals. Because of their unique way of viewing the world they are often creative problem-solvers that should not be overlooked or taken for granted simply because of their disability.
Written by Ernst VanBergeijk, PhD., M.S.W. (2011)
Associate Dean & Executive Director
New York Institute of Technology
Vocational Independence Program
The Vocational Independence Program is a Comprehensive Transition and Post Secondary Program for students with neurologically based intellectual disabilities or students who are higher functioning on the autism spectrum.
