Seeking help for 18-year-old with high functioning autism
I’m looking for suggestions on how to help a young adult with high-functioning autism. My daughter (I’ll call her “Beth”) was diagnosed with ASD in 10th grade. By the time she was diagnosed there weren’t many resources to help with social skills or occupational therapy. Seems like those are more for kiddos on the spectrum who are diagnosed in preschool and early elementary. Beth can function OK in school and excels in a few subjects but struggles socially. She had a couple close friends when she was little, but no close friends since middle school. The small friend group she had in high school petered out during Zoom school/quarantine. Since starting college (here in the Bay Area, thankfully not far away) she’s not meeting new people due to her social skills deficits and spends a lot of time alone in her dorm room. I visited her at school last week and was alarmed to see how her hygiene has gone off the rails without parents around to offer reminders about showering and brushing teeth. The college doesn’t have any support groups for ASD students, and now that Beth is 18, I’ve been told it’s her responsibility to secure her own therapist (legally I can’t act on her behalf anymore). We’re willing to pay out of pocket for a good therapist or support group but every attempt I’ve made to find someone who to help with therapy, social skills, and whatever you’d call hygiene help (is this life skills therapy?) have been dead ends. Does anyone know a specialist or organization that could help? Thank you.
Parent Replies
I went to the nami.org website, searched on autism. This link in particular seems like it has info for you: the Interactive Autism Network came up fohttps://www.iancommunity.org/cs/adults . Our friend (ADHD) has a paper taped to his mirror with checkboxes on it, so he can look at it every morning: brush teeth, wash face, brush hair, etc, it works for him.
Shelly Hansen helped our kid a lot.
Hi!
AANE has great resources for parents, young adults and teens with HFA. Support groups, parent coaching, and individual life skills coaches. All can be done by zoom. I’ve used them all. They’re super helpful, just check their website & call for advice. Low cost or free. aane.org
The UCSF Star Autism clinic also has good resources. For social skills for my 18yo, we did their PEERS group for young adults & it has really made a difference. Via zoom. They also have parent advice/coaching and other helpful things. Covered by insurance. Very responsive by phone or email. autism.UCSF.edu
Have you tried looking into Social Thinking groups, https://www.socialthinkingsanjose.com/services. Their headquarters are in San Jose, but offer remote groups, as well as directories for therapist trained in that methodology. My son is also HFASD with ADHD, lots of issues with pragmatic communication and this program has helped him come up with social strategies. Another recommendation was looking into a Executive Function tutor for some of the organizational things. My son wasn't diagnosed until this past year at 13, but I already knew something was going on and enrolled him in Social Thinking, because like your daughter had very similar social challenges. It might be more of a challenge to convince her to participate, but it might help her overall feel better about herself.