Ever wondered how gifted autistic students can thrive in college? Let me illuminate the path for you, drawing from Joseph Maddus's enlightening article and my own wealth of experience as a college instructor. This episode is a treasure trove of strategies and personal insights, detailing the journey gifted autistic students take to excel in higher education. Together, we'll explore the essential steps from dual diagnosis to choosing the right college environment, ensuring that these unique learners aren't restricted by a single label but are empowered to reach their full intellectual and personal potential.
From interviews with parents of autistic college students, who've held high expectations from the start, to my own anecdotes about the remarkable capabilities these students displayed in my American Sign Language classes in Florida—this discussion is packed with heartfelt stories and practical advice. It's an eye-opening look at the importance of extracurriculars, leadership roles, and the careful selection of a college that not only accommodates but celebrates the diversity of giftedness and autism. So join me as we champion the success of these incredible students, because with the right support and understanding, the sky's the limit!
Ever wondered how gifted autistic students can thrive in college? Let me illuminate the path for you, drawing from Joseph Maddus's enlightening article and my own wealth of experience as a college instructor. This episode is a treasure trove of strategies and personal insights, detailing the journey gifted autistic students take to excel in higher education. Together, we'll explore the essential steps from dual diagnosis to choosing the right college environment, ensuring that these unique learners aren't restricted by a single label but are empowered to reach their full intellectual and personal potential.
From interviews with parents of autistic college students, who've held high expectations from the start, to my own anecdotes about the remarkable capabilities these students displayed in my American Sign Language classes in Florida—this discussion is packed with heartfelt stories and practical advice. It's an eye-opening look at the importance of extracurriculars, leadership roles, and the careful selection of a college that not only accommodates but celebrates the diversity of giftedness and autism. So join me as we champion the success of these incredible students, because with the right support and understanding, the sky's the limit!
Hi everyone. I'm going to talk about an article I read on the internet. It's called Seven Strategies to Help Gifted Autistic Students Succeed in College, and I'm not going through the whole article I read. But if you want to read it, it's by Joseph and I'm going to spell this last name Madd M-A-D-A-U-S. Maddus, and he wrote a pretty good article and I thought maybe you'd like to read that. But I'm going to go through some of the things he said, but I'm going to add some other things to it. He gave seven.
Speaker 1:
I'm going to talk about six different ones I wrote down. The first one is on identifying both autistic and gifted. So this would be something that we're talking about in high school when they are, or even younger than that, even in grade school. If they are both gifted and autistic, we need to have them diagnosed for one, for both. I'm sorry, not for just one, but for both, because what happens is they go in and you have them all diagnosed for autism and then they're labeled that and which is okay, but then there are a lot of times put in a special class and their needs will not get mad If they are also gifted. You want both of them on there. Now in my experience when dealing with IEPs they always go by the first one. So if the first one is listed as autistic, then they may try to just keep them in a different class. You don't want that. You want them in a regular general ed class. Now they may need somebody to help them, like a pair or something to get them going and stuff. But eventually it depends on the student. If they need that support for a long time. If not, you want to pull away from that. You want them independent. But maybe at the beginning, when they're younger, that might be something to consider. But I definitely recommend having both on their IEPs that they are gifted and autistic. Let me see what else did I write? Okay, we talked about that.
Speaker 1:
Now the second thing is they interviewed different parents that the kids were already in college. So they did interview different parents and it's what they found out from the parents is that all of them had, at an early age, expected them to go to college. They knew from the beginning that they were smart. They were going to college. He wrote in that article that one boy said that the school told them your son's too smart to have a disability. And so the boy thought, never realized that he was autistic too, so which we know that that wasn't right, that school should have done that, but anyway. So they always took honor classes and they got college credits and they also did, which is number three. We talked about extra activities. They always did one or more activities and sometimes even being they were even leaders. That said in the article, it's a good article.
Speaker 1:
I liked it, you know, to expand on the fact that our kids on the spectrum can go to college too, and I've had students in my classroom when I taught at the college here in Florida and they did well, they didn't have any problem. I taught American Sign Language and college for a few years and I had a few students that would come in and take. It was easier for them than maybe learning language that they had to speak, so but I worked with them and they did. They did fine.
Speaker 1:
The other thing was finding the right college, and that is something that you really need to look at, because there are colleges out there that do cater for kids that are on the spectrum or have other disabilities but are really smart and can get a skill and depends on what they want. Now sometimes they can just go to regular colleges. It doesn't matter. The thing that you may run into is professors that maybe don't want them in the classroom or don't understand, and so that can kind of be difficult. And then in the past, when they're in school, you can ask questions, you know and find out information, but when they're in college you can't. The professors are not allowed to give you information about their grades or anything else. That's up to the student to do that, not the professors. And I had a situation too where a parent came in and wanted information and almost like in high school, and I you know I couldn't do it. You know it was against policy to do that. So that's something to think about. But you know, if they're in college and they're adjusting and doing well, I'm sure you can keep that communication open with them and then find the right support for them. They still may need some support in college. It just depends on how much they've gotten in high school and in what they may not need anymore in college and college can be a little bit different and also, maybe consider something that's not too far away so that if they do have a bad day or something you're not too far away, that you can help support them or they can live at home at the same time, maybe take one or two classes. You know, there's no rush or anything like that.
Speaker 1:
The other thing that I wanted to talk about and this wasn't in the article was, even if you don't think they're going to go to college, think of it like a trade, a trade school or something like that, that they can pick up a trade. And but let me let me tell you and I talked about this in one of my podcasts about parents please don't be the helicopter parent and expect them to do well when they get older and in college, because their self-esteem is probably going to be low and you've tried to fix everything and you, when they're good up into college or even in trade school, they need to learn how to do that for themselves, and so you have to let them learn on their own and you know, fail and pick themselves back up and try again and and do those things and not be there to rescue them all the time, so they can do well and in life, and that's what we want. We want, that's what we all want for our children is that they grow up and and do well in life and able to get a job in a home and things like that. And our autistic kids, they can do that too.
Speaker 1:
I had another boy at a private school that it worked at and he was smart. He knew math very well, became an engineer and drove a car, and he was very autistic, there was no doubt about it. But he was extremely smart, he was a gifted person and did well. So anyway that I, if you get a chance, you know, try to find that article. It was a good article. There was a little bit more information. I just kind of highlighted it and I wanted to add a little bit to it because I think it's important to think of our kids, future for them, and if you're, if you've got a child right now, that's, you know, five, six, seven, you know, it's not too early to start thinking of those things, because that's where you want to start teaching some independence and and be able to have them grow and and become self, sufficient, be able to go to college and learn. So I had a boy that I've been working with since last year, june last summer, and his mom just sent me a video. I wanted to share this. He was able to go to the grocery store with her and Naughty Lope and help push the car and help put groceries in, and it was. It was a big accomplishment it was. It was really good to watch that video.
Speaker 1:
Now she chose her battles. You know the goal was for him to help push the battles. Now he got a lot of treats that he wanted, but that's for another day. You know, one thing at a time, you know you can't pick through okay, I want this, this and this. You just. She just focused on one thing that he could stay where he's supposed to help push the car and help get the groceries. And that was something he did. You know, push the car and she said get you know loaf of bread, and he got that. She says we'll get another one. You got that one over a little bit further and there's potato chips he calls yellow and grab that, put it in the cart. So he didn't a little bit all. He stayed right where he's supposed to. He did really well. We were really proud and those little goals are what we all look for for our kids. It's very exciting when we see it happen. Anyway, I hope you have a blessed day and a blessed weekend and I'll talk to you later. Bye, bye.