As well as your child may have fared in high school, a successful college or university experience is going to require even more preparation, practice and support. Yes?just the kind of thing you already know goes hand in hand with any change of environment or structure.
One way parents can ease this transition period is by helping your child maintain peer connections. In fact, don?t just maintain?help your child make as many new connections as you can. Learn about your child?s interests and together research clubs or organizations where they can meet like-minded people, both on and off the spectrum. Relationships with peers and particularly peer mentors are going to be invaluable in a post-secondary setting and should be cultivated in as many different ways as possible?through existing friendships, neighbours, relatives, extracurricular activities, non-profit organizations and the post-secondary institution itself. Heather Fawcett, a social worker at Emerging Minds, a multidisciplinary clinic in Ottawa, works with individuals on the spectrum who are age 16 and up. What she?d like to see parents do is pay more attention to the social side of the post-secondary equation.

.related-article-block{display:inline-block;width:300px;padding:0.5rem;margin-left:0.5rem;float:right;border:1px solid #ccc}@media (max-width: 525px){.related-article-block{float:none;display:block;width:280px;margin:0 auto 2rem}}

Today?s Parent launches first autism eBook for Canadian parents?We put a lo...