Give Them Options and They Will Take Them

Two families with children on the autism spectrum are profiled in yesterday's Penn Live. Kyle, Patricia and Jeff Weiss's son, is 7. Alex, Suzy Brenner's son, is in his late teens.

At 11 and several months, my own son is right inbetween the ages of Kyle and Alex. We've been through the early intervention regimens and waded our way through too many treatments and programs and centers and practitioners, and we're now thinking all the time, like Suzy Brenner, about the "great after," after, that is, school is over for our sons. Both the Weisses and Brenner describe their disbelief and devastation after the diagnosis of their children, and also their many efforts to find therapies and help their child. There's mention of the numerous toothbrushes Kyle has sent down the toilet (sounds familiar) and of Alex lining up all the family photos (Charlie certainly keeps his photo collection close by, and has been known to lay it all out along the floorboards).

Whatever the ages of our kids, we are in it together. I still feel an immediate bond on catching the glance of another mother whose child has "special needs." There's a lot of difference out there and the sense that one is not walking alone, however much one feels it, is sustaining. One thing's for sure is that there are a lot more options out there than when even my son was younger.

Indeed: One thing that's definitely changed a lot since Charlie was diagnosed is post-secondary education options for students on the spectrum. Dora recently highlighted a document from the Department of Education on Transition of Students With Disabilities To Postsecondary Education: A Guide for High School Educators: What I've found interesting about this guide is its intended audience, "high school educators."

The guide covers a lot, from the admissions process to post-admission and questions of legal rights, and is certainly of interest to students on the spectrum planning to continue their education after high school. It's a also a document that college administrators and staff and faculty (like me) would do well to read, as it outlines the sorts of accommodations that students with disabilities may need (and goes into much more detail beyond the one "accommodation" that I most often hear about from administrators, "more time on tests"). The guide goes into some detail about obtaining services and why documentation is often necessary. It ends by noting that the "key to success" is threefold: attitude, self-advocacy and preparation. Students are encouraged to "understand their disabilities" and to "take responsibility for their own success."

US News & World Report has recently published articles on college for students with intellectual disabilities and also on college for students with learning disabilities, and students on the autism spectrum as well. This latter article highlights a program called College Living Experience (CLE), which is a private program in six cities around the US that operates residential programs to assist students with learning disabilities who are attending college. I've written about CLE here and here (and some commenters note that they are in the program).

Again, many more options exist for students on the spectrum to continue their education. For my part, as someone who works in post-secondary education, I'm hopeful that my college and others can learn to better accommodate students on the spectrum. I'm not at all sure about my own son's college prospects. Jim and I are both professors and have a quite good sense of what he'd face; Charlie seems to prefer being out of his desk and doing things, being active.

But the jury's still out about the college question: As Suzy Brenner says of Alex, "'There are so many milestones that I never thought we'd see when he was 6 or 9 years old'"---things, like talking, which Alex started to do more when he was 9.

Certainly Charlie's done a quite good job at surprising Jim and me so far. While there are limitations, there's also more possibilities than one realizes. A case in point is Charlie's learning to ride a bicycle and to play the piano; he learned the piano from a skilled teacher and from me, and the bicycle riding, from Jim alone. I can assure you, no one ever thought Charlie'd be riding a two-wheeler with hand brakes before he started talking in full sentences, or that he and Jim would ride for 12 miles through a couple of towns.

Photo from Geograph.