Lessons from Middlesex Community College

Korinne Hertz, a Disability Support Specialist at Middlesex Community College, wrote an article for the AANE website (and newsletter?) describing a program she designed for “Orienting Incoming College Students with Asperger Syndrome.”

Having noted that students with AS entering MCC seem to struggle, particularly during the huge transition of first semester, she researched their specific needs. Based on her findings, Ms. Hertz designed a freshman orientation program that would serve that population. Below (quoted directly from the article) are a few of the issues addressed during the sessions.

• Explicit teaching of the vocabulary of college, e.g., what does “three credits” vs. “four credits” mean? What are the differences between lecture, hybrid, and online courses? What does it mean to add/drop a course vs. withdrawing from a course?
• Initial explanation of some common unwritten rules of the MCC campus, e.g.: how to access adjunct faculty vs. how to access full time faculty; where do students go when they have down-time between classes; room numbers that start with a “2” are generally on the second floor, etc.
• A campus tour including looking inside a classroom in each academic building.
• Several guest speakers, e.g., someone from the student activities office discussing how to get involved.

Ms. Hertz’s goal was to see the program adopted by other colleges. I would add students with other mild forms of autism or social communications issues and students with nonverbal learning disorder to the intended audience. Although I am not familiar with how such a program could be introduced to a broader college base, I believe strongly that there is a critical need for such a targeted program at every college.

Miscellaneous Good Things...and Laundry Lessons

Apart from the awful weather – it was a nice weekend. My son – home for a week on spring break – and I attended a small concert of Irish music on Saturday night onsite at the AANE offices. It was a pretty laid back introduction to the association. On the way home, I mentioned to my son that the AANE had regular meetings and activities for young adults. I don’t know if he’d be interested in attending this summer, but I hope he might consider it. Just planting the seed.

Before we went to the concert, we stopped at a local Best Buy because the camera he had bought there last summer was broken – again. He had purchased the two year warranty (fortunately) and had already had it repaired once. I left him to handle the camera and customer service and went off to run an errand. When we met up, he had a brand new camera.

He also downloaded and established a Skype account, which will be a fun way to communicate when he’s back at school.

Finally, in a move toward greater independence, I gave him his first lesson in doing laundry, which he managed very well! For anyone reading this just for the “Instructions,” below are the tips I gave him for doing laundry. Please, mothers and other neuro-typical laundry people – remember that these instructions are aimed at my son – who has nonverbal learning disorder; it’s a condensed lesson. I don’t necessarily wash clothes according to these instructions (oh, that’s right, I don’t wash usually clothes at all; that’s Dad’s job).

1) Assuming you are using a pay-washer, READ THE DIRECTIONS! They will tell you where to put the money, how to select the temperature/cycle.

2) Don’t try and squeeze too many clothes into one load of wash. If you have enough for two loads, divide the pile into light colors/light weight (underwear, socks, t-shirts); and darker colors/heavier weight (pants, sweatshirts).

3) If you can fit it all into one load, don’t worry about sorting at all.

4) Since we’re pretty much skipping sorting, never use hot water. So the “default” cycle will be “warm wash, cool rinse” or permanent press. Almost anything will come reasonably clean when washed in warm water and rinsed in cold. Rinsing in cold also saves energy and keeps fabrics from getting too wrinkled.

5) Bring a book – if you can’t leave your laundry unattended, you can read or study while you’re waiting.

6) Everything can go in the dryer; it usually takes about 45 minutes or so to dry a full load on high heat. Guys’ clothes are not usually subject to shrinkage and guys are unlikely to care about a few wrinkles caused by the high heat. BUT – if you’re a young woman, this does not apply; your clothes might shrink and you would care!

More on Leading the Horse

One of the parents in the AANE email threads has written that her young adult son had attended an AANE group meeting, but did not really “like to be around people with AS, who are obviously different.” This is really one of my concerns with getting my son to attend an activity or support group. Nonverbal Learning Disorder is not technically on the autism spectrum, and – without that label – NLD seems less threatening, less of a “disorder.”

Yet some of the behaviors and quirks are very similar. Given that one of my main concerns is my son’s struggle with social relationships, I believe there would be some value to meeting other young adults facing the same difficulties, even though he doesn’t recognize any such difficulties in himself. Moreover, he usually seems comfortable with the social connections he does have – whether through peers (virtual through Facebook, the Ultimate team, etc.) or through relatives and other adults.

I’m hoping that the horse will take a drink some time this summer; he really might like it.