Monday, March 31, 2014

Challenges In College Success For Autistic Young Adults

Challenges In College Success For Autistic Young Adults

By Saleem Rana


Dan Hanks, the Director of Northwest College Support, Coeur d'Alene in Idaho talked about college success for autistic young adults with Lon Woodbury and Liz McGhee. He was interviewed on Parent Choices for Struggling Teenagers on L.A. Talk Radio. During the course of the interview, he outlined why even brilliant autistic young people frequently have trouble being successful in university. He went on to summarize a few of the things parents and professionals can do to assist these youths attain success in college.

Lon Woodbury is the well-known publisher of Woodbury Reports and has worked with hundreds of struggling teenagers since 1984. Elizabeth McGhee is the Director of Admissions and Referral Relations at Sandhill Child Development Center, and she has more than 19 years of clinical, seeking advice from and reference relations experience.

About Dan Hanks

Dan Hanks is a founder of Northwest College Support and Cultivation Counseling. He graduated from the University of Idaho and holds a Masters of Education in Counseling and School Psychology. He is a licensed Counselor and a certified School Psychologist. At Northwest College Support, he works as a School Psychologist and specializes in working with individuals with learning disabilities, individuals on the autism spectrum, individuals with ADHD, and persons struggling with addictions.

Difficulties in College Success for Autistic Young Adults

The main challenge for high-functioning autistic youngsters is not the scholastic work itself however the executive capabilities required to do the job. Exec abilities, Dan detailed, featured peripheral management skills like organization, time administration, and social abilities. He contrasted this potential of the brain to implement relevant jobs as similar to a conductor of a band coordinating the work of the different musicians. While autistic kids may have been good at examining specific subjects in high school, pupils at the university level were required to deal with deadlines and measure up to teacher expectations. Autistic students found this brand-new level of intricacy tough to understand.

He described one autistic student who started out in college with straight A's but then began failing within three semesters. Working with Dan, the student learned time management, organization skills, and pragmatic social skills. One particular intervention proved particularly helpful: self-monitoring. After being videotaped doing school work; he would watch the tapes and make progressive improvements based on self-evaluations. Today, he is on track to get an engineering degree, proving that college success for autistic young adults is indeed possible with the skillful help of a therapist or counselor.




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