Realizing the College Dream With Autism or Asperger Syndrome: A Parent’s Guide to Student Success

Realizing the College Dream with Autism or Asperger Syndrome is both a practical and a personal account of one ASD student's successful experience of going to college.

This accessible book focuses on how to get there and stay there: deciding to go, how to get in and how to get the most out of it. Ann Palmer advises parents and professionals how to prepare the student for the transition from school and home life to a new environment and educational challenge, and how to support them through potential problems such as academic pressure, living away from home, social integration and appropriate levels of participation in college. She offers helpful strategies that will encourage and inspire parents and students and show that college can be a suitable option for students with an autism spectrum disorder, as well as the basis for a successful independent life later.

This book is essential reading for any parent considering college as an option for their child, disability service providers in colleges and for ASD students themselves.

Ann Palmer is married with three children, one of whom, Eric, was diagnosed with autism when he was two years old. He is now 24. She has 13 years’ experience working with families of individuals with autism at Division TEACCH (Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication handicapped Children). Ann coordinated a volunteer parent mentor program that provided support to over 800 families in North Carolina. In her current role as Director of Chapter Relations for the Autism Society of NC, she coordinates over 40 parent support groups throughout the state. She is also the co-author of Parenting Across the Autism Spectrum: Unexpected Lessons We Have Learned, published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. This book was the 2007 Autism Society of America’s Outstanding Literary Work of the Year.