Students With Learning Disabilities Get Help With College
College Living Experience helps students with learning disabilities pursue their dreams of higher ed
Corrected on 02/26/09: An earlier version of this article misspelled clinical psychologist Tom Welch's name.
Michelle Gross, academic liaison for CLE's Denver program, also sees the ability to organize an apartment or make friends as small successes that should come before—or at least in conjunction with—academic achievement. "If you're academically successful but you have no friends, then what's the point?" Gross says. She works hard to provide and coordinate academic support services tailored to each CLE student. If a student is anxious about attending a certain class, Gross frequently walks the student to the classroom door to ensure he or she arrives on time. Instead of providing students with one tutor for all their subjects, Gross works hard to hire tutors who specialize in students' coursework. For example, if a student is taking an accounting class, CLE will hire an upper-level accounting student to tutor. If a student is taking a culinary arts class, that student gets a chef as his or her tutor. CLE provides a different tutor two hours per week for each of a student's classes. Most important, Gross teaches students to be self advocates—to know how to explain their disabilities and to know what accommodations they need.
Though Brittany Ross has not graduated from the Community College of Denver, she is already putting the skills she learned through CLE to the test. In January, Ross left Denver to intern for one semester in Disneyworld through the Disney College Program. She says the achievement would not have been possible without her participation in a program like CLE. Each day Ross works as a restaurant hostess, she must use her social interaction skills, since the job is heavily dependent on customer interaction. Without CLE's tutoring, Ross's grades might have compromised her application to the program, and without CLE's emotional support, leaving Denver would have seemed too great a risk, she says.
Ross "loves" her Disney job, but she also misses the friends she has made through CLE. That in itself is a kind of accomplishment: Before she enrolled in the program, she struggled to form friendships with peers. "When I was younger I had a few friends, but I was never very popular and didn't really feel I belonged," Ross says. "Now, I have 50 students who have become my brothers and sisters and best friends, and I finally don't feel like I'm the one left out of the group."
Reader Comments
Philippe Gation
I am looking for information for my son who is 21 years old
Social Competence in adulthood
Good article highlighting some of the challenges for folks on the autistic spectrum or with other learning differences, attention problems or other challenges impacting a successful transition to adulthood. I would note however, that the social problems many of these individuals face transcend the functions of friendship and/or loneliness. At the young adult stages and beyond, social deficits interfere with major aspects of life such as ability to get and keep a job, to live independently, understand & follow societies rules/laws, to choose, train and work in a career, to get along with others in a family, and to maintain relationships such as spouses or to be a parent. Without supports, the vast majority of folks with these challenges remain unemployed, underemployed and dependent upon their families throughout adulthood despite high IQs and proficient abilities to speak.
Kudos for CLE
My son just spent two years at CLE Denver and we could not be happier with the results. He is now working on his own to complete his Bachelor's Degree and, if all goes according to plan, he will graduate a semester early. He is even talking about going on to do a Masters degree. If your child has Asperger's syndrome or anything along that spectrum, I highly recommend CLE for academic and social support. The program was worth every penny!
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