Twenty-five years after launching one of the nation’s first disability support offices, Boston University has launched a pilot program to examine options for students with Asperger’s Syndrome, an Autism spectrum disorder commonly overlooked on college campuses.
ASDs can impair students’ verbal and non-verbal communication, social skills and some behaviors, according to Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences professor Gael Orsmond. Patients with Asperger’s Syndrome experience ASD symptoms but have an average IQ and no history of language development problems. Patients also may experience feeling shy and socially alienated from peers in addition to having obsessive compulsive tendencies.
Despite the difference between Asperger’s and other ASDs, Orsmond said the distinction is irrelevant when helping students to succeed in classes or with social interactions.
“The interventions and what [the students] need are going to be the same,” she said. “We still have to look at the person and what their difficulties are.”
The program, developed by BU Disability Services Clinical Director Lorraine Wolf in collaboration with the University of Minnesota and the University of Connecticut School of Law, will evaluate ways students with Aspergers can treat its symptoms
“We want to find out what are the best interventions,” she said. “Personal support seems like one of the most important things — just having someone to check in with on a regular basis.”
Asperger’s Syndrome was first described in 1944 but was not classified as a psychiatric disorder until 1994, according to the Asperger’s Association of New England website. Since then, colleges, especially more competitive schools, have seen an increase in students with the disorder, Wolf said.
But AANE Executive Director Dania Jekel said the increase is more likely due to a higher rate of diagnosis, not a rise in the number of students with Asperger’s.
“We know that the number of identified students has certainly increased,” she said. “Before, a lot of folks had a different diagnosis or no diagnosis.”
But many students still do not report symptoms, making it difficult to track the prevalence of Asperger’s on college campuses, Wolf and Jekel said.
“It could be a unique challenge [for the students] to advocate for themselves,” Wolf said, because asking for help is a common social impairment. “Students are often brought in by parents. It is rare for them to bring themselves in.”
Jekel said she hopes more schools will focus on locating students with Asperger’s so they can receive the help that will let them succeed in college.
“A lot of schools have disability offices, but it’s really very often that people with Asperger’s Syndrome are confused or have trouble taking the initiative,” she said. “That’s a problem. There has to be somebody out there who has to be on top of what’s going on and has to be proactive.”
Wolf said she hopes the pilot program, along with a book she co-authored, set to be released in early 2007, will help bring more insight about the disorder to other universities’ disability services programs.
“[Students with Asperger’s] often have different needs than resource disability people are used to dealing with,” she said.
Jekel said college students with Asperger’s without a support system can turn to AANE, which hosts discussion and social groups for young adults.
Wolf said students with Asperger’s may need extra time for test-taking, reduced course loads, special housing accommodations, including single rooms or quiet floors, or someone to occasionally check in with.
Jekel said colleges should also consider developing a special orientation for students with Asperger’s.
“[The orientation would be] to sort of go over with students what are they going to disclose and who are they going to disclose it to and how,” she said.
Orsmond, who is studying patients with autism and their families, said students with Asperger’s need personal support to succeed in college. She said she suggests students try to connect with a professor who may be more understanding of the disorder.
Jekel said Asperger’s students also find support groups helpful.
“What we see is that people with Asperger’s Syndrome generally feel very comfortable in groups with other people with Asperger’s Syndrome,” she said. “I think it’s important to have those available.”