Transitioning from high school to college can be a difficult task. For students with an autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, the transition can be even tougher..
Until fall 2007, however, the University had no program to help them do so.
"There are very, very limited resources for adults with autism in the state of Alabama," said Laura Klinger, associate professor of psychology and director of the UA Autism Spectrum Disorders Research Clinic.
Klinger has worked with students with ASD for years and saw that after high school, no more support programs were available to them, something Klinger said she knew needed to change.
The program, known as UA-ACTS, fills that void. It provides support for students with ASDs to ease their transition into college life.
Through a one-year grant awarded to Klinger by the Alabama Council for Developmental Disabilities, the program provides its three freshmen participants with mentors to support them during their freshman year, as well as the remainder of their time at the University.
Klinger said once the program is in full-swing, there will be 12 to 16 students participating in the program, with three to four freshmen being added each year.
The grant enabled Sarah O'Kelley, a post doctoral clinician and the clinical services coordinator for the ASD clinic, to be hired in October 2006 to begin developing the program. O'Kelley, a UA graduate who had worked with Klinger as a student, said she thought the clinic was necessary.
"They needed support above and beyond what was offered," she said. "We saw a need and wanted to contribute."
Four graduate students from the department of psychology serve as mentors in the program and meet with students in ACTS three times a week to help them address any obstacles they've encountered both in and out of the classroom.
O'Kelley said UA-ACTS students, who must be admitted to the University on their own merit before entering the program, do the same work and face the same obstacles as any other freshman on campus.
"We don't do things for them. Our goal is to help them navigate things on their own," O'Kelley said, adding that her goal is the same for any UA student. "It's to support the students but not to alter the college experience."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ASDs are developmental disabilities caused by a problem with the brain, the causes of which remain unknown.
Individuals with ASDs may communicate, interact, behave and learn in ways different from most people, and their thinking and learning ability ranges from gifted to challenged.
For students with ASDs, Klinger said the social aspect is usually what students have trouble with. Some may not know how to ask professors questions about the material or how to interact with their peers.
"[These students have] a little bit of social awkwardness and some difficulty figuring out how to organize and maneuver the academic world," Klinger said.
In the past, she said she had seen students give up and leave the University because they got frustrated.
The students in the ACTS program, however, have shown no such signs, she said.
"I don't think students in ACTS are having any more difficulty, in any case have [less] difficulty, than freshmen without that support system," Klinger said. "They're having a pretty good experience being freshmen here at UA."
O'Kelley said the response from UA faculty and administration has been great.
"We've had an absolutely remarkable response from the University of Alabama and its support staff," Klinger said, adding that faculty members have e-mailed asking to be advisers for ACTS students. "For the most part I've just been absolutely impressed by the support we've received from other people on campus."
Klinger said institutions and parents from across the country have been calling to get information about the ACTS program. This week, calls came from Ohio, California and Birmingham, she said.
"That means that it's unique and I know it's one of the only programs in the country like this," she said.
UA-ACTS
-The program helps UA students with autism spectrum disorders.
-Students have a mentor who supports them as they adjust to college.
-Mentors meet with their students three times a week.
-Three students are enrolled this year.
-The program will eventually include 12 to 16 students, with three or four being added each year.
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