How Can We Help? Autism Spectrum Disorder College Ed.

Don't know how to help? Well we've got you covered!

COLLEGE

College kinda sucks sometimes. The season is filled with change and this can be very stressful. It’s a new environment that pushes us out of our personal bubbles. But college is also very rewarding in that we get to build meaningful relationships with others, thrive in our passions and enjoy that “college experience.”

Giphy

How would college be for students with disabilities? How would college be for specifically college students with ASD?

It would be absolutely just as or even harder for them to adjust to everything around them. And so to help our fellow colleagues out we got to make the effort. Us college students need to be more aware of the people around us.

BUT HOW>?!

I recently came across this research journal talking about how autistic college students initially were having trouble socially. I mean it’s even hard for highly functioning people to be pushed into a completely different environment, how much harder would it be for people with autism. According to the journal, more and more people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are going into higher education but they feel “lonely and isolated”. So these psychologists did an experiment and collected data on 3 ASD college students by providing a peer mentor to each. The peer mentor and a student would meet weekly to plan for social activities and work on “specific social skills.” After a while, the psychologists saw how each student improved not only academically but also having a higher level of satisfaction with the “college experience”

If one person intentionally meets to basically be a friend to ASD college students this study wouldn’t be a surprise anymore but a natural truth. Kinda crazy how just one person reaching out to other can increase the overall college experience.

IKR?! So what do we do? From my observations here are some tips I've found:

1. Just approach like any other person.

I know sometimes for some reason people are scared to approach people that are different from them and in that way we treat them differently. Isn’t that a bit odd? The study shows that ASD college students do better when put in a social environment so bring them out to one

2. Ask them out for lunch

A very simple and easy way for us socially awkward human beings to force ourselves to interact with one another. What better way is there than FOOD

3. CLUB CLUB CLUBS

College has so many different clubs out there for people with similar interests to join. But people with ASD can be shy to approach different clubs so GO check out these clubs with them. It's the perfect opportunity for ASD students to get plugged into the social atmosphere.

4. Being a friend, simple as that

They don’t need another teacher or parent, but they need a friend that is reliable. This natural relationship of being accepted will stimulate the same results the peer mentors and ASD students had in their experiment.

It's a process

Just because we do these three things does not mean the world will all of a sudden become the perfect euphoria all desire BUT it can be a step in recognizing there are others out there that need our help. So next time you see a college student with any disability, don’t stray away from them. Approach them and be their friend because it makes an actual academic and social difference in their lives.