#autistic student

[hsinnii]

accommodations i’ve had approved as an autistic college student

helloooo today i finally had a meeting with the disability office and have accommodations after 2 years of being in college without them. im autistic and have cptsd/dissociative issues and had a hard time finding what was even available to me to request for accommodations so i wanted to make a list to help anyone else who might be having trouble.

• Priority registration

i get to register for classes earlier each term to make sure i can create schedules that’ll work for my routine

• Extended time on assignments

self explanatory i think? was also offered extended time on tests or a separate room to take them but testing isnt where i struggle

• Flexible attendance

as long as i email beforehand i dont have to stick as strictly to professors attendance policies

• Alternative formats

if i buy a physical textbook i can request the ebook/pdf/audiobook for free to have multiple methods of studying depending on what works for me on a given day

• Note taking

allowed to audio record class and send to a service called messenger pigeon who will give me a transcript of the class and professional notes based on it

• Access to lecture notes

able to access professors lecture notes prior to class/instruction

• Devices

allowed to have phone/ipad/laptop for social buffering and notes in classes that may have policies against electronics

• Flexible participation

no cold calling, option to work alone for group projects/assignments, not required to present in front of class

if anyone has any questions lmk these are just what i have been able to get at my school so far! hope it helps

edit: this is blowing up so fellow autistics, students, language nerds, etc pls be my mutual i want friends lol my dms are also open any time !!

#studyblr #study blog #langblr #langblog #language learning #languageblr #anthropology #anthro #actually autistic #autism #autistic adult #autistic community #autistic student #studyinspo #study help #studyblr community #study tips #study motivation #studyspo #study inspiration #college #student life

[talesofanautisticwoman]

Autism in university

So i'm just halfway in 1st semester in university and it's quite though. I'm studing health and nutrition, which is quite interesting. So reflecting on a few things which have happen in over the first two months.

I have already blurted out i'm autistic and i felt like i scared people away. A handfull from my class already know. Looking back i wish i just kept my mouth shut.

Masking is really exhausting and when i come home i just lay in bed for hours. I barely have the energy to study.

The social font is whack! utter whack. I can't connect with my classmates at all. I have participated in a good handful of social events, because i do want to get to know them. It's hard because they have different interests than me. Very different interests. It's totally okay they have different interests than me. However it makes it hard for me to connect with them.

My diagnosis that up a lot of space in my mind. I have become more aware of my diagnosis when i'm with non-autistic people.

Don't get me wrong my classmates are nice people.. it's just me who doesn't know how to socialise.

#university #college #college life #autistic student #autism #autistic #actuallyautistic #autistic spectrum #actually autistic #asd #autistic community #actually autism #autistic experience #autistic experiences #student

[northlight14]

@ everyone going back to school, especially all my fellow neurodivergents and specifically those with special interests or hyperfixations, there is no wrong way of revising! It doesn’t matter if it seems “unusual” to other people, if it works for you, use it!!

I just finished collage and because of my funky brain, I can have a difficult time remembering information, especially things like names and specific details. And considering a lot of the classes I was taking required me to remember a lot of different theories, that was proving to be a bit of an issue. Cut to when we were getting up to our A level mocks and my English literature teacher at the time starts going round the entire classroom asking everyone how they revise one by one. Everyone’s saying the usual stuff of “I reread the material” “I use flash cards” “I make notes” etc. All stuff I’ve tried to do in the past but just never worked for me because my brain functions differently. She then gets to me and asks how I revise and I explain that I’ll try and make connections in my brain between the thing I’m studying and whatever my interests are. I’ve always found this to be useful for me because it keeps my brain interested in what I’m studying by using my special interests and also requires me to actively think about and analyse what I’m studying so that I can make those connections. However, my teacher just looked at me with the most condescending smile on her face and asked “does that really work?” Obviously I got uncomfortable and said “yeah it does” but she then proceeded to ask “do you do anything else?” And making it out as if I was an idiot for doing something like that and just making me feel embarrassed in front of the class. Eventually, I just said one of the generic answers everyone else had so she’d leave me alone.

However, I’m petty as hell so when it came to the mocks I used that method to memorise one of my theories for media studies. Cut to that theory being the one that stuck in my head the most, just proving to me that this method my teacher decided “doesn’t work” without actually listening to me, does in fact work for me. Fast forward to my actual A Levels and I used that method again. Ace Attorney had just become my new special interest/hyperfixation so I used that for a lot of the theories. Specifically, one of the theories I linked it to “The Steel Samurai”, a tv show within the Ace Attorney universe. Then when I went into my exam I saw a theory question. For those who don’t know, for theory questions they just ask you to apply a theory to a specific text but they only name the theory, they don’t tell you what the theory includes. While at first wasn’t sure what the theory was and went to answer another question, I then quickly remembered “the steel samurai” and even wrote down “the steel samurai” next to the question as a reminder for myself for when I went to answer it and it helped a lot as a prompt. Once again, the method my teacher decided “didn’t work” was the very reason I was able to answer that question and passed my media exam

Again, it doesn’t matter what other people’s opinions are on how you revise, if it works for you, please use it! You know your brain better than anyone else. Do whatever helps you understand the material and keeps your brain engaged

#that teacher was so ableist I swear. I told her I think I have adhd and she told me to ‘try and focus’ #like bitch I fucking tried that for the past 18 years!! hasn’t worked so far oml🙄 #adhd #autism #dyslexic #dyslexia #neurodivergent #neurodivergent student #adhd study tips #adhd student #autistic student #study tips

[nicxxx5]

y'all who else sobbed and got hysterical over school assignments/projects because you wanted to make sure they were exactly what the teacher was expecting and you weren't missing anything at all but no matter what the instructions/directions were to vague and you literally needed clarification for everything?

#autistic #actually autistic #actually disabled #actually autism #autism #autistic problems #autistic spectrum #autistic experiences #autistic adult #autistic burnout #autistic student #student #school #college #university #studying #homework #assignments #meltdown #shutdown #crying #school work #school project #and the best part was the teacher saying they could clarify because it'd be telling you what to do/giving the answer 🙃

[yinlotus]

once again my undiagnosed adhd and autism is kicking my butt.

i still can’t figure out what i should major in. and my break from school is unfortunately being cut short because of my parents (i was hoping to have a full gap year but they want me back in school next month 😵‍💫 which is insane because they're not being helpful. and without a diagnosis will anything really change just because i took 3-5 months off?)

i have to go to community college because my gpa absolutely crashed so much that most universities probably wouldn't accept me right now. and my local school has pathways to transfer to a regular 4 year uni with a major in those pathways

anyways i can’t tell if i want to do an anthropology or physics pathway (two completely unrelated topics, i know)

i like them both but i don't know if i like them because of my hyperfixations or because i actually want to do it.. how do i differentiate that?

examples:

i majored in game design for a year. in reality i didn’t actually like 3d design/vfx, it turns out that animated things is a major visual stim for me. (narrative design is still something i enjoy but writing is definitely a hobby over a main career to me. no thoughts on programming: i don't dislike it but i also don't particularly love it. its just something i'm good at, it can be fun at times)

i also majored in astrophysics for a year. i liked it.. but the fact that all i could do was look at data through a computer and not actually research planets physically put me off from it — the idea of having a career where my work doesn’t actually do much in my own lifetime isn't something i enjoy

now do i want to do anthropology because i'd enjoy it or do i just like a slightly below surface level version... would i even enjoy the work environment? Is this a topic that i just like because as an AuDHDer, it's fascinating to learn as much as possible about the human experience

do i want to do physics because it's a hyperfixation or do i genuinely like this long term?

hhhhhhhh y'all i am struggling

could anyone in these two majors or graduates please tell me some pros and cons + the experience of them?

#academia #studyblr #black studyblr #black academia #student #dark academia #college student #grey academia #light academia #college #college advice #career advice #adhd student #autistic student #stem studyblr #anthropology #physics major #anthropology major

[badbatchenthusiast]

a little realisation i came to today, about living with and coming to terms with having a hidden disability, especially neurodiversity, trauma and/or mental illness:

for the last six months, i have struggled quite a lot. it’s a high-stress time in my life where everything i do counts towards major life decisions, and the main message i’m hearing from the people around me is that i need to give it my all, work as hard as possible, or i’ll regret the opportunities i’ve missed.

needless to say, i haven’t been sleeping particularly well. i’ll go to lessons and then work a 4 hour shift on two, maybe three hours sleep. i’ve been so anxious that knowing i believe i’ll be exhausted the next morning no matter how much i sleep, and the 9hrs i’m set to get by sleeping early won’t be enough still (because life is inherently overwhelming and overstimulating as an autistic person). this makes me stressed about how i’m not sleeping until it’s five in the morning and i can finally relax enough to doze. everything is being impacted; my attendance has been slipping, my tutor is involved. it’s felt like i’ve been getting worse and not better, like life is going to continue going downhill until things i used to find easy — falling asleep, organising my own schedule, keeping my studies balanced with work and a social life — are things i’m finding almost impossible and are taking great effort to maintain at a reasonable standard.

but here’s the thing.

i’m not getting worse.

it feels like i am, because new problems are arising that weren’t there before, but someone i owe a lot to pointed out today that a year or two ago, i would not have been able to express myself. they wouldn’t register as problem areas, i’d just push myself into collapse. i would’ve worked myself into a meltdown instead of walking to the support office and informing them i needed to go home, would’ve been in verbal shutdown or unresponsive or having a panic attack instead of being able to stim and breathe through the overwhelm. today i made a calculated decision, of leaving early instead of sticking out for the rest of the day and probably exhausting myself enough to not be in tomorrow or the day after. and that’s huge.

my autism isn’t ‘improving’ despite me having less of the massive meltdowns or shutdowns that got me diagnosed in the first place. i’m probably more visibly autistic than i’ve ever been. my anxiety hasn’t lessened despite no longer having regular panic attacks.

but i’m catching it earlier. i can identify what’s going on with me before it becomes a crisis, and i’m starting to have the skills to run interventions.

when people say progress isn’t linear, i think this is part of it. i’m not getting worse, i can just see the problem now and put a name to it. the analogy that came to mind was a building, which before i could only tell was fragile when it caved in, is now having the work put it to rebuild properly. but before you can have a nice foundation and solid walls there’ll be a lot of looking around, and realising the concrete is cracked to shit and nothing is reinforced and those spots you never paid attention to are in fact black mould which are eating at your walls. and these are realisations i was not having before because i didn’t know, i didn’t have the tools or the understanding to make sense of it.

my floors are no longer collapsing on me at random. it’s instead a constant series of little things, because i can tell when a pipes burst and deal with it before it floods everything and rots the floors. but this awareness brings with it the feeling that something is wrong all the time. that there are constant little fires to snuff — that things are getting worse, not better. that yes i know how to stop a broken pipe from leaking now but it doesn’t change the situation, which is that the entire system needs swapping out for less rusting parts. it’s easy to get lost in all of this and forget that actually, before, this would’ve been a build up to a crisis and now it’s something i can deal with before it snowballs.

learning to cope and accommodate myself after being told my entire life that i am going to be impressive, that i’m capable of being high achieving in anything i put my mind to, has been rough. i was never going to succeed at the life other people talked about for me; i’m simply not able to work that hard without hurting myself, and honestly i think few people are even without a disability. i don’t want to live life for other people, i want to build something im proud of, for me, designed to make me feel good and comfortable and succeed in a way that makes sense for my ambitions and needs. and both are important; success isn’t out of the picture, i just need to rethink it so it includes being happy and coping with what i find difficult. i won’t lie, it has been a process of mourning someone who never existed, who i never could’ve been. i still resent sometimes the fact that i can’t go back to masking so much no one notices my symptoms.

but i’m improving. steadily and tangibly. it takes work, and at some point it’ll definitely feel like leaving the unstable building in place was preferable to the deconstruction because recreating it all with a healthy and sturdy foundation seems impossible, but it just takes time. you replace one brick at a time.

it gets better, i promise, even if it’s hard to believe. any step forward is progress, no matter how small, until you look back and realise you’ve come an unimaginably long way forward.

#personal #being autistic #autistic student #autistic #actually autistic #actually neurodivergent #this has been a little personal epiphany i wanted to share #and put out there so i could come back to #progress isn’t linear #but i promise it is progress

[cryptid-aac]

mom wants me do really well in classes to up gpa (think have 2.9 or less) but never never able to study

wonder if making studyblr blog will help...

#studyblr #study blog #study motivation #studyspo #study aesthetic #actually autistic #high support needs #medium support needs #semiverbal #aac user #autistic student #senior year #studying #study help #study tips

[autismmajor]

8/20/23

Finished all of the work I can currently complete for my classes! I had a productive first week of class and I’m already having a much better year than I did last year. Also met with the rest of the Improv team board (i am the secretary) to discuss our upcoming events.

I’ve also found that doodling in my notes helps me focus and feel engaged with the content. It’s not necessarily the most aesthetically pleasing, but it helps me think a lot and I’ll do whatever I can to make studying and note taking easier for myself. Below is a doodle from my Intro to Visual Arts notes.

#studyblr #college #college student #uni blogging #theatre major #university #doodle #visual arts #adhd studyblr #autistic student #actually adhd #actually autistic #actually audhd

[mainlysarcastic]

Want to help support autistic kids and kids with developmental disabilities?

Consider donating to help my friend fill her classroom!!

Tori teaches 3rd and 4th grade science and social studies at a school for autistic kids and kids with developmental disabilities

Every item big or small will help her students to have a good and positive year this coming school year

Her wishlist included frequently used classroom items, snacks for the kids, and many other items to help engage her students in learning!

#disability pride month #autism #developmental disabilities #teachers #elementary school #disability #autistic learning #autistic student #teacher wishlist #classroom wishlist #autistic kids #kids with disabilities #developmentally disabled #support teachers #support students #Amazon wishlist #disability pride #neurodivergencies #neurodivergent

[danielforshort]

I spent an entire semester failing

And my advisor approved it.

Its hard to describe this semester. My first PhD semester, and all I did was fail, over and over again.

My advisor told me ahead of time what I was getting myself into and I agreed to it. She had been working on a functional connectivity analysis a while back, but her workload changed and she didn't have the bandwidth for this project anymore. So I adopted it. I spent hours learning to code and sighing at new error messages. I found myself half dreading my weekly meetings with her, afraid to show my lack of progress.

I just presented to my lab all my failures and kept trying to remind myself, both internally and out loud, that this was good failure. That I had not missed my advisor's expectations, I was not somehow falling behind for failing. That in fact, grad school, and research, are all about good failure.

My advisor also reminded us about this during my presentation. The scientific process is about rejection and failure and forgiveness. You have to embrace the failure. It Is an inherent part of the process and it is good and important. I'm paraphrasing her words but she essentially said "the scientific process includes a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, tears, and carrying on".

At the end of lab meeting I realised that what I was scared of wasn't actually the failure. It was the idea that my advisor might perceive my failure as weakness. And I think that's another part of grad school/PhD studies. I have to stop looking at other people to assess my weaknesses. I know my limitations, I know my skillset, and I know my efforts. And if my advisor had an issue with my work she would tell me. She is not secretly marking my weaknesses; she is rooting for me.

Now I need to root for myself.

#word dump #phdjourney #phdblr #neuroscience #actually autistic #autistic student #root for yourself

[laffy-taffy-creations]

SO HERE'S SOMETHING FUN

I LOVE ANTHROPOLOGY, AM TAKING A SOCIOLOGY CLASS

EVERY TOPIC ON THE DAMN SYLLABUS FEEDS MY INTERESTS

AND

I'm getting an earbud accomodation/exception to the rule for my sensory issues

#i fucking kive this teacher #he's so cool #both in terms of being a generally cool and interesting person and an awesome techear #lt speaks #autistic things #autistic #actually autistic #autistic student #autistic stuff #ramblings

[hsinnii]

school updates!

- been making friends finally and im really happy (i knew a total of like 3 people at my community college after going there for two years)

- midterms are done! still waiting on grades but very happy its over

- just met with my advisor today to finalize my class choices / make sure they make sense and ill get to register next week for spring! finally starting language classes (mandarin) up again

- really enjoying all my major classes so far

- currently struggling with my ethnomusicology seminar (assignments/topics are interesting but we have no textbook and kinda hate my professor) and am a few chapters behind in dinosaurs simply bc dinosaur biology & anatomy is overwhelming for my brain so i keep putting it off

- meeting w academic coaching office this week to get help w above issues

- had my first performance over the weekend with the dance crew i joined on campus !! it was scary there was a much bigger crowd than i expected but it went well and now we’re preparing for a showcase at the end of term :)

#studyblr #study blog #langblr #langblog #anthropology #anthro #language learning #languageblr #chinese langblr #mandarin langblr #study aesthetic #studyinspo #studyspo #college #university #autistic student #autistic community #actually autistic #autistic adult #school #studyblr community

[talesofanautisticwoman]

Hi sorry i have been M.I.A for the past half a year, but my studies and everything in between is very tiring. Im currently in 2. semester in my mayor 'nutrition and health'' (Ernæring og sundhed), i just started about a month ago. I passed both of my exams with the grade 02, - which is the grade E. I must say i have kind of given up on most social interaction.. as it is vey hard. However i have some people i talk to sometimes, who are very kind. I have a feeling/assumption that most people think i'm kinda weird and abnormal. Sometimes when i try to talk to them or say something they become quiet and/or give their friends 'the look'.. if you know what im talking about. I just kinda suck at communicating and interacting with people. I do have friends tho, however they are not from my class tho or the other classes. They are all doing something different. I think its better for my mental health to focus on these people, rather than to focus on those in my class. ---- i will try to update more than i do now.

#autism #autistic #actuallyautistic #autistic spectrum #actually autistic #autistic experiences #autistic experience #actually autism #autistic community #asd #university #college #college life #autistic adult #autistic things #autistic student #autism college

[titan-god-helios]

i hate the fact that adhd makes you process boredom as literal emotional pain I AM STRUGGLING IN THIS CLASS OH MY GOD

#that adhd feel #living with adhd #adhd #adhd stuff #adhd mood #neurodiversity #neurodiverse stuff #neurodivergencies #its the neurodivergency #neurodivergent #neurodiversesquad #adhd thoughts #emotions #my adhd #autistic student #autism #adhd student #actually autistic

[awetistic-things]

i love learning but school is really ruining that for me

#school #high school #junior year #all this shit #i’m tired #the autism does NOT help #nor does anything else #it’s not that much it’s rly fine #but it’s too much at the same time #exhausting #school problems #student problems #student #autistic student #autism #autistic #actually autistic #asd #autism spectrum disorder #autistic things #on the spectrum #autistic problems #autism problems

[sillycourtjester]

And it's frusturating. I know what I need to do, I just can't get myself to do it. I know it could help me, but I'm so used to dealing with it when it's difficult that it's anxiety-inducing when it isn't difficult, because I don't know how to measure how I am doing if I'm not struggling.

#academic issues #autism #adhd #academic #school #college #university #test #tests #ACT #studyblr #autistic #neurodiversity #neurodivergent #mental illness #mentally ill #actually autism #actually autistic #actually adhd #actually neurodivergent #actually mentally ill #executive dysfunction #testing #student #university student #high school students #college student #neurodivergent student #autistic student #adhd student