Developing college skills in students with Autism and Asperger's syndrome is written by Dr. Sarita Freedman, a psychologist with over three decades of experience and founder of the ' College on the spectrum' that has helped many youngsters on the Autism spectrum. This book distills her years of experience and helps parents, teachers and therapists with tools and ideas to prepare their child/student to navigate their college life with all its hurdles.
Contrary to popular belief, this book is not about teaching the academic skills needed for college course, but instead focuses on the social skills, organization skills, self care skills and many more that will help him/her succeed not just in college, but in life. The author calls them - Skill sets. The best thing about this book is that for every skill set, she offers ways to teach them not just to adolescents, but to younger children as well so that they inculcate these skills from an earlier age.
The various skill sets covered in this book are :
Self-awareness skills sets
Environmental skill sets
Self-advocacy skill sets
Organizational skill sets
Asking for help skill sets
Self-care skill sets and
Social skill sets
The appendix provides a very useful table that lists how teaching each of these specific skill set will help him/her in their daily life, personal life, academic issues and executive functions. For example, teaching organizational skills sets will help them - keep track of medical records, insurance information, bank records in personal life; make an appointment as well as plan and reach it on time, manage study and leisure time in daily life and several executive function tasks like using a task planner, organize course material into manageable chunks, planning and completing home work and other projects on time, learn the art of multi-tasking and learn to handle change in schedule/program , etc,.
A thorough and immensely book, useful for preparing your young one to a stress free college life and a more balanced and fulfilling life. The sooner you start, the more the probability that it becomes a part of their thinking process and second nature.
You can purchase the book on Amazon India
