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Hi. My name is Staci Carr. I am the technical assistance coordinator for the VCU Autism
Center for Excellence. Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental
disorder that ranges from mild to severe disability. The characteristics of autism include behavioral,
social, and communication difficulties. So, students with autism spectrum disorder who
do attend college appear to be different than their peers.
Some of the things that you may see are an inability to form relationships with others,
difficulty during group work, either not wanting to participate or wanting to complete the
whole activity on their own, some fidgeting during class, wanting to get up and leave,
some social communication difficulties with responding to communication attempts by others,
like the professor or peers, inappropriate commenting. It’s often common to have very
specific comments given to professors either about how something they have said is inaccurate
or something about their appearance. Not meaning any harm, but very straightforward without
a filter information. Additionally, you may see difficulties with organization. Students
on the autism spectrum often have difficulty planning for activities, such as when a test
is going to happen or a large project with multiple steps. And, will forget to do some
of the steps, forget to turn in assignments, or have difficulty completing various steps
of the assignment. Students with autism spectrum disorders have
many strengths, as well. They’re very specific about their interests and if you can capture
what they are interested about and their motivation, they will have great detail, they will be
very honest and truthful with their knowledge and their friendships. They have a great deal
of passion for what is interesting to them. If you meet some individuals on the spectrum
they may have passion for music, perhaps. And, they will have a lot to say about music,
their genres, the artists, different types of music and can talk about it for hours.
When they are very interested in the subject matter, say computer programming, the products
that they will produce are top notch and very thorough. So, that’s something very much
to look forward to. People with autism spectrum disorders have
a variety of difficulties on the job. In finding a job that suits a person with an autism spectrum
disorder can be challenging, as well. Looking at what is motivating, what is capturing the
strengths of the individual is key. And, finding a job that is right that meets the needs of
the individual and the employer is also very important. So, if you can find a job that
suits the employer that will also tap the interests and strengths of the individual
with autism, then you have a perfect match. Some of the difficulties you may run into
are staying on task during work, completing a given assignment, task assignment at work
in an appropriate amount of time, some of the social skills associated with co-worker
politics, friendships and relationships. You also might see some interesting behaviors
around sensory issues. Some of the things with autism that we often forget are the sensory
impacts. So, things like sights and sounds, lighting, perhaps. So, fluorescent lighting
might be difficult for some individuals with autism or smells. In one case, I remember
a young lady who wasn’t thrilled about a women who was chewing gum in her office because
of the smell of the gum and the sound of her chewing. And, that became a problem because
she wanted the women to stop chewing gum and would say things that were inappropriate to
make her stop. But, if you can put some supports in place so that there are appropriate communication
avenues for the individual with autism, they will be very successful.
When communicating with individuals with ASD, it is important to be very concrete. I highly
recommend using email as a way of getting communication across to individuals with autism.
One of their big deficits is social communication and the social communication piece of non-verbal
language, of understanding intent, of processing the verbal information can be very difficult.
So, if you could put information in an email form or in an instant message perhaps that
will serve as a record for the individual. Additionally, when they respond to you as
a professional they can look at their email prior to sending and perhaps it will be more
appropriate, more on topic, than if they were to respond in person. Things that you may
want to consider are if there are specific tasks to be done or things that you would
like to see from that individual, bulleting the information, so maybe a task list of the
things that need to get done. But being very direct and concrete, is the best way to communicate
with an individual on the autism spectrum.