Autism Support for Students

• Academic Stressors and Changes to Routines
  • A fast-paced 11-week quarter for undergraduates and graduate students (SCU Law and JST Students 16-week semesters)
  • Adjusting to and balancing an academically demanding course load
  • Adapting to various teaching styles across different professors and different learning environments
    • Limited direction and encouragement of self-determination (e.g., significantly less direction on assignments)
    • Unclear or ambiguous directions for assignments
    • Classroom distractions including sensory stimuli
    • Class registration (e.g., course schedules changing from quarter to quarter or semester to semester)
• Acquiring appropriate accommodations
  • Seeking out and receiving academic accommodations for classes
  • Scheduling and coordinating accommodation resources (e.g., alternative testing spaces, time adjustments for exams or presentations, coordinating and communicating with professors about academic accommodations)
• Social stressors
  • Changing schedules each quarter can make it difficult to form and establish routines and friendships (e.g., changing class schedules, schedule conflicts between classes and social activities)
  • Adjusting to being more independent and engaging in social discovery (e.g., exploring opportunities with social clubs, socializing with unfamiliar people such as classmates or new neighbors)
• Overwhelming thoughts and feelings
  • Heightened distress made worse by environmental, sensory, and social factors
  • Unhelpful thinking styles that might include negative self-talk, self-criticism, and unhelpful assumptions
  • Strict expectations about self, others, and situations
• Distractibility and difficulties with attention due to overstimulation
• Navigating social cues from a broad range of culturally diverse students (e.g., local, out-of-state, and international students)
  • Challenges finding social activities and overcoming the “missed opportunity,” “missed timing,” or “fear of missing out” worries
  • Navigating social environments that are not sensory inclusive (e.g., loud events, noisy and crowded gatherings)
• Unfamiliar Environment and University System Stressors
  • Leaving familiar environments, such as home and community, to live at and attend SCU
  • Tolerating people and environments that you have less control over
  • Seeking out support from faculty and university offices and navigating their policies
• Activities of Daily Living
  • Changes to your eating habits and lifestyle routines
  • Self-driven and self-guided time-management and task organization
  • Potential changes to your sleep routine
  • Adjustments to personal hygiene practices

• Seek out academic accommodations early - Students with verified disabilities are protected by state and federal laws, making it a right to equitable and accessible education. [More can be found in the section “Understanding Your Rights for Accessible Education and Housing”] This means that students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Specific Learning Disorders, and other disabilities have a legal right to academic accommodations based on the needs of their disabilities. It is not an advantage or a sign of weakness to get accommodations for a disability, but more accurately thought of as a way of leveling the playing field.

• Schedule and plan ahead - Routine-building is key, and scheduling is a powerful strategy that allows us to protect our time. Scheduling and planning ahead can help students feel more in control of their responsibilities, tasks, and even relationships. It can also be helpful in protecting our self-care. By protecting our time for self, relationships, and academics we can hold a more balanced lifestyle that allows time and space for these important areas of our life. [Office of Accessible Education (OAE) offers appointments with an Executive Function Coach, who is a professional here to help you organize, strategize, and manage your time. [Visit https://www.scu.edu/oae/efc/ for more information on EFC services] 
  
• Prioritize your well-being - Students have high demands and pressures placed on them, internally and externally. In response, students often prioritize schoolwork over other important areas of their life. For example, students frequently forgo sleep, taking breaks, eating, and even going to the doctor, all for the sake of finishing assignments. While this can seem temporary and easy to shrug off, the fact is that the impact this has on the student tends to be compounding. This compounding stress leads to increased risks for physical illness due to a weakened immune system response, brain fog, anxiety, and reduced memory recall due to lack of sleep. It even contributes to burnout. Prioritize your well-being while attending SCU to make the most out of your time here and to ensure that you are taking care of your whole person, not just your academic and intellectual development.
  
  
• Plan for potential sensory overload - It can be helpful to identify spaces on campus that may lead to overstimulation. Scouting the campus and exploring spaces where you can feel comfortable beyond your home or room can make a huge difference. While you might have a preference for your alone time, social isolation can create significant consequences for you over time. Scout for comfortable places, not hiding places. 
  
  
• Seek out social support sooner, rather than later - Many students often believe that if they miss an opportunity to socialize or engage in activities the first time, that these opportunities are closed to them. This is often untrue, and due to an unhelpful thinking style that is quite common, usually fueled by anxiety. Taking safe social risks like attending clubs, student events, and even making efforts to socially engage peers are helpful strategies. 
  
  
• Seeking out professional support – CAPS is free to you, and we are here to help you decide for yourself if you need professional help.

Autistic students are protected by California and Federal laws to ensure equitable and accessible education and housing accommodations. Students may have had academic accommodations and support services in primary and secondary schools through IEPs and/or 504 Plans. These plans ensured academic accommodations were in place to ensure that students with autism could access their education in a manner that is supportive and accommodating of their needs. While these state and federal laws still exist and are enforceable in college and university settings, some students do not know that they need to self-initiate the accommodation process.

The IEP and 504 plans that students have in primary and secondary school are initiated by adults intervening. However, when a student enters college, they are considered the responsible party to seek out and initiate the accommodation process for themselves. IEP and 504 plans do not automatically transfer, and the university does not automatically institute them. This is where self-advocacy plays a major role. When a student enrolls at a university like SCU, the student becomes the responsible party for initiating the accommodation process.

Because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), parents or family members are unable to obtain information, or make decisions for the student unless explicit consent has been given by the student. Due to FERPA, SCU staff and faculty are unable to relay information to, or take direction from, parents, which can lead to frustrations for the student. When engaging in self-advocacy, the student may decide that they want their parent’s involvement in the process, to which the student can be guided by SCU staff or faculty on how to initiate that process.

By law, higher education institutions must provide reasonable accommodations when the individual’s disability needs indicate a barrier to accessible education and student housing. This process involves providing disability records and support documentation to OAE and meeting with an OAE advisor. Accommodations are then determined by the Office of Accessible Education [https://www.scu.edu/oae/]. This office at SCU oversees all accommodations for disabled students.

• Providing individual, group, and crisis therapy services
• Navigating transition stressors
• Managing interpersonal relationship stressors and challenges
• Supporting and treating depressive and anxiety-based disorders
• Building and strengthening emotion regulation and distress tolerance skills
• Supporting the development of social and life skills
• Psychological and emotional crises
• Developing and strengthening communication skills
• Providing Group Therapy options such as Understanding Self and Others, Autistic Self-Expression and Connections Group, and Quest for Connection Group, etc. 
• Offering case management services to provide students with SCU and community referrals for medical, psychological, psychiatric, and other wellness support programming
• And more!

Anderson, C. (2018, May 9). College on the autism spectrum. Higher Education Today. https://www.higheredtoday.org/2018/05/09/college-autism-spectrum/ 

Autism Society. (n.d.). Navigating college life with confidence: A resource for autistic students. https://autismsociety.org/navigating-college-life-with-confidence-a-resource-for-autistic-students/ 

College Autism Network. (n.d.). College Autism Network. https://www.collegeautismnetwork.org/ 

Wehman, P., Schall, C., Carr, S., Targett, P., West, M., & Cifu, G. (2014). Transition from school to adulthood for youth with autism spectrum disorder: What we know and what we need to know. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 25(1), 30–40. https://doi.org/10.1177/1044207313518071