Lived Experience Forum

[Me61]

Hi everyone 

I have an 18yo son  with HF autism,  Aspergers. He just started at Uni, first time living away from home.  Super brilliant intellectually but struggling so much with time blindness, focusing on assignments,  getting to lectures,  misreading timetables... endlessly feels panicked and behind. (  I just discovered How to ADHD YouTube  this evening while googling executive function disorder and I reckon he may also have adhd...) also he struggles with chronic insomnia! Anyone have any strategies/ suggestions that have worked for them? 

Thank you.  I love that there is somewhere we can share our stuff. xx 

[tyme]

Hey @Me61 ,

Welcome to the forums! It's great you could reach out to the community here.

One of the first things is probably to get in touch with the uni. There are uni fees for a reason - that is, they provide supports that can help your son.

For example, the uni should have a student support centre whereby you can phone in with your son to determine what supports are available to him. I'd also encourage him to reach out to his course co-ordinators and lecturers so they have an awareness of what may be working/not-working for your son.

Uni's are working towards becoming more inclusive. I'm sure they will hear you out.

Now in terms of your son, a visual monthly or semester calendar should help. He can highlight or pencil in when assignments are due, exam periods etc; Co-ordinate each subject he is studying into its own folder.

Hope this helps!

tyme

[Me61]

Thankyou time.
Im going to buy him a monthly planner thingy. He's in the process of talking to the equity section of th uni. 🤞🤞🤞

[Eve7]

Hi @Me61 and welcome to the forums. Your son sounds a lot like my second son who also has hf Asperger’s and adhd.

My son did 2 semesters in Europe and I worried myself silly the whole time he was away. He came home safely but did leave a trail of lost property around the world as he came home “the long way”.

I did a visual timetable for him similar to the one he had through school and I think that helped. He’s married now with a couple of kids. But it’s been a bit of a journey…his wife is very committed.

I don’t know if I’ve said anything helpful but I do understand.

[Me61]

oops it autocorrected to 'time" 🤗

[Me61]

Thankyou Eve7

it helps just to hear that you understand!

[tyme]

The message above was for you @Eve7 , I believe.

As for the planner @Me61 , perhaps need a large size so it’s a clear visual for him that can fill a wall. That way, he will have an overall idea of when to start assignments etc.

Unis also have reasonable adjustment plans which can help him get through uni. I’ve used them in the past myself.

There are so many uni support services for students. I’d encourage him to use them

tyme

[Gwynn]

My friend who has similar issues to your son loves using the alarms feature on her phone, as well as the calendar feature to help her ability to get to classes on time. Having a wall planner calendar marked up with assignment due dates is essential for her.

Something which helps me is to put in my diary every week a notification of what each week at uni is supposed to be about - e.g. "Week 7 Subject code# Read through module on Data Security, take notes for Assignment 2." And do that for all my subjects.