Son with Asperger's Syndrome at university

My autistic son is also at Durham Uni and could maybe be a support for him. My son has managed to develop a close circle of friends, a number of whom I believe experience similar difficulties with social aspects of life. Is there some way we could contact each other that is not public to the whole website?

regards Joan

Hi Joan,

I just wanted to echo what Josie said, it would be great if you could keep us updated on this as I have 2 daughters with Aspergers who both need to access uni if they are to fulfill their career dreams!  

Claire - Community Champion

Hi Jube,

I read your post with keen interest though sorry to hear your Son is struggling. I may be stating the obvious here but dont Durham Uni have a buddy system in place, where perhaps an older, more experienced student can help keep your Son right with regard to the practical aspects of his life. My 19yr old Daughter is going to Lancaster Uni in Oct to study Psychology and she would relish this kind of responsibility. Up until now her only experiences have been with her Brother now 10 who was diagnosed with Autism aged 3.

Good luck with your search.

Hi  Jube

I have just found this site whilst looking for information on coping with uni and aspergers and read your post about your son.  I am a student with aspergers at abertay university in dundee and before I started uni I was very scared how I would cope.  The reason I felt this way is that I struggled through college because of people not understanding me.  I think the reason you feel different is because you dont understand the information in the same way as others, I sometimes feel  even now that the information I am getting at Uni is completly different from the information my class mates are getting. However I have managed to get through three year and pass my degree proggrame, by processing information the way I know how, I did struggle this year as there was a lot of team work which was also peer assessed which is where I was told that I had to realise that I was not a team member no matter how I tried. This is when I thought I would crumble, but instead of complaining about me, my team helped me understand team work better.  So I do know how scary it feels to be at uni and I find it hard every day and whats more I try to deal with it all by myself rather than ask for help maybe thats whats wrong too, anyway maybe this can help you understand the way he feels, because now especially I want to drop out even after 3 years as I think the way i understand things and the way I structure my writing is going to fail me this year.

kim

Hi

Damian

Thank you for your reply, I say I sometimes feel like uni is hard but it is for everyone I sapose, I will be sticking in this year, or I hope I will be able to when i start my honours. I am studying Food and consumer science and have done quite well so far but I feel that I am stuck at the same level all the time and what keeps approaching me as the problem is structuring my work, I feel that I know what I want to say and it makes sense to me but then does'nt to them.  The reason I am so scared this year is so much is counting on it, because I want to access my post grad in teaching, but I somtimes feel that all the extra work this year will make me fail, especially the fact that just failing one module will fail the course and as essays is my problem I think this years going to be the worst, but don't worry I will stick it out, I have never been a quitter and want to prove myself.

 thank you

kim