late diagnosis of ASD....now what?

Hey there.....I have a 19 year old just diagnosed with ASD. He is ADHD for many years and that was always our focus. He did fine thru high school---except on the social side. He went off to college and had a miserable first year experience. We couldn't figure out what had gone wrong and his therapist tried everything she knew over the last year to work with him and things just didn't click. Now we know why. But I am confused what to do now---so much of what I know is how to work with much younger children. What about someone older who has just been diagnosed? Where do start? What do we look for in a therapist? I appreciate any ideas.
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  • Hi, I had a later diagnosis than him. I didn't get diagnosed until after I graduated when stress had me by the hands. I managed to get through college because of how easy it was to register for classes. Class registration was easy and neat since it was online. The most difficult thing that I found was keeping up with the financial aid paperwork and my parents helped me with it so it made college a lot easier. Maybe he needs support on that side too. Have you asked him what he was having a difficult time with? 

    The problem with roommates is that they will party and be inconsiderate of resting time. I had a few places to go and I lived on campus. Eventually I had to get my own place so I ended up renting an apartment unit not far from campus. I use to major in Architecture so I was either in the dorm room or at my studio and then later on started visiting the library on campus. I have Asperger's Syndrome and I am diagnosed with two different forms of anxiety, major depression, and ADHD. I have dyslexia too, but its not diagnosed. I wrote pretty quickly and wrote everything the professors said to avoid reading. The only reading I ever had to do were homework problems.

    Practice organization early on. I kept all my notes in a binder and my classes, if there were PDF versions, were saved in their own course folders. Spiral notebooks make me uncomfortable but I can put up with them sometimes. I don't know what else I can share right now. 

  • I know I just regurgitated my college experience. Let me know if you have any other questions.

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