Literature Review

Literature Review

Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) is a disorder on the Autism Spectrum that cripples a student in social interaction. However, the medical community only began to recognize AS about 20 years ago. Now that students with AS are reaching the age of university enrollment, colleges have to deal with a whole wave of students with a disorder that never needed special attention before(Smith, 2008).

As a result, certain organizations such as the Achieving in Higher Education with Autism and Developmental Disabilities (AHEADD)(Pharma Business Week, 2007) and College Living Experience (Lipka, 2006) have sprung up. These organizations are designed to help college-aged students adapt to the new environment that a 2 or 4-year university requires. These organizations provide social and academic advising to students on a weekly basis, giving students, for a price, extra help that the university services don’t provide.

The problem that arises is that in helping these students, the actual integrity of the college experience can be overlooked. When these organizations push for more and more alternative assignments and other kinds of special accommodations, the student may not be in reality be keeping up with the other students, no matter the grade he receives (Farrell, 2008).

This leads to the problem of having students in college who simply are not ready for university life. If a student in pushed through his 4 years of college by these programs and his parents, the integrity of his college degree and all others with it will have been compromised.

Some students, however, use these programs as simply a jump start toward their education, and only remain in the program for 1-2 years, and after this point are capable of finishing their degrees independently (Lipka, 2006). This seems like the ideal usage of these academic programs.

Another blatant problem with the programs still remains, however. These organizations can cost thousands of dollars per year (Farrell, 2008) (Lipka, 2006), creating a sort of elite class of disabled students within the university. Because these programs are not yet all covered by student loans, students with AS who do not have the money to participate in the programs have no way of having the same opportunity as students with AS from wealthier families (Lipka, 2006).

Bibliography

Farrell, E. (2008). Asperger's Confounds Colleges. . Chronicle of Higher Education , 51 (7), A35-A36.

Lipka, S. (2006). For the Learning Disabled, a Team Approach to College. Chronicle of Higher Education , 53 (17), A36-A37.

Pharma Business Week. (2007, December 10). Asperger's Syndrome; Autism U: As College Application Deadlines Near, Growing Adult Population Focuses on Higher Education. Pharma Business Week , p. 2.

Smith, C. (2008). Support Services for Students with Asperger's Syndrome in Higher Education. Academic Search Complete , 41 (3), 515-531.

A Research Topic?

So, as I've been reading through my research to write the literature review, I think I may have come up with a couple ideas for my research topic. I started out broadly, just researching anything that had to do with disabled students, physically or mentally, on college campuses. Then I narrowed it down to college students with Asperger's Syndrome. I think a good basic research question would be (I might be able to phrase it better later):

What are reasonable accommodations for AS students that do not compromise the college experience? 

a) Who should be responsible for funding these accommodations?

Interview with Dr. Angle

I did my site visit and then my interview with Dr. Susan Angle this morning from 10:15 to 11:15. It had been really difficult to set up because the staff are overrun with students who need appointments! Getting an appointment for just an interview was a big task. But after a lot of scheduling, I got my interview. 

The interview itself went really smoothly. My computer recording worked, but I also took notes on important details. Dr. Angle was really nice and really accommodating. By the time I shut off my recorder, I was still talking to her about interesting facts about SSD and special education in general. 

I was really interested to find out that SSD does presentations for classes about disabled services when teachers are out of town. They recommend that everyone go see one of their programs, since many students see the examples of disabilities and realize that they themselves could use the help of SSD. 

Anyway, I let her know that I wasn't sure what my research topic was going to be, so she actually expanded on a lot of the questions I asked her, going into a lot more detail than I expected, which led me to asking a lot of follow up questions that I think may help me come up with a research topic. 

Another interesting thing she talked about was how different Tech is now from when she began working here in 1995. She said the staff are much more willing to work with students with disabilities and provide or create alternative assignments for students with special needs than they were before. 

All in all, it was a really good interview. I think I will be able to use a lot of the information I got to form more questions to research or even to cite in my paper. Since I recorded it, I can even use direct quotes, which I am very excited about. 

A Question for Anyone

Does anyone know how to record audio (for the intverview) on an Apple computer? I know some of the programs can record, but I'm new to Apple and not sure how to use those programs. 

Course Goals

My three course goals:

1. To learn how to correctly create and use footnotes, endnotes, bibliographies, and other means of citation. 

2. To improve my organization in technical papers. 

3. To learn how to create a good thesis statement for any kind of writing. 

Interview Questions

  Planned Interview Questions

1.       1. What are some major services that are available on campus for disabled students?

2.       2. What kinds of services exist for students with mental disabilities if any?

3.       3. Does having a disability affect a student’s chance of acceptance into Tech?

4.       4. How accessible do you see our campus as opposed to other colleges?

5.       5. Do you feel that faculty and staff treat disabled students differently?

6.       6. How does Tech accommodate disabled students during social events, for example sports?

7.       7. Can you tell me about any specific challenging situation you’ve faced working with SSD?

8.       8.  Have there been any recent changes, or are there changes planned for the near future, in SSD?

9.       9. What improvements would you like to see in the services SSD provides?

10.   10. Finally, what attracted you to work with SSD?

 

A Day with the Football Fans

Heading out to the Furman game, I see tens of thousands of avid Virginia Tech football fans clustering around numerous gates and entrances into the beloved Lane Stadium. They range in age, from small children with painted faces and candy bars to alumni who seem old enough to have been the first graduating class at Tech. Young and old, male and female, student and alumni (and hopefuls), the crowd of Hokies chatters excitedly about crushing the enemy and jumping to Enter Sandman. 

After the fans pass through security guards, bag checks, and flights of terrifyingly steep stairs, they find their seats with friends do a number of curious acts.  One might strip off a shirt revealing the traditional maroon and orange chest coloring.  Another might put on an orange wig, or paint the face of a friend with a giant “VT” symbol. 

Seats continue to fill until well after fans have welcomed their home team onto the field. Overpriced food and drinks lure customers at every turn.  As the game begins, nothing else exists in the world but the players and the coaches. 

Tradition is essential to the game. Keys jingle at the gobble of a Hokie, a canon is fired for every point scored, and fans stand, and never sit, out of respect and fanaticism for the game. 

There are rules to being a Hokie football fan, however. Excitement and spirit are necessary, but there is a possibility of going overboard. I watch an over zealous, intoxicated fan being led down the stadium stairs by two police officers and get handcuffed at the stairwell. This fan will likely be eradicated from the football fan community and never allowed to attend another game. 

Even after the last minute winds down, the game really doesn’t end for hours more. Late at night, crazed fans yell “Let’s Go!” to no one in particular, and there doubtless will be someone at 3am within earshot, who yells back “Hokies!” Being a Hokie football fan is not to be taken lightly—it is a lifestyle for everyone who enters Lane Stadium on a Saturday or Thursday. So White Out, Orange Effect, Maroon Effect, whatever game it may be, the football fans will be there and ready for a day of tradition and Hokie culture until the last post-game party goer finally rests in bed at 9 am the next morning. 

Fact or Opinion?

Some of our group statements:

-Most truths come from personal experience. 

-The rest comes from accepting knowledge from an expert. 

-There are grey areas between right and wrong in some topics. 

-Facts and evidence change over time. 

I've thought a lot about how my personal experience in the field of Special Education and just generally with Special needs people has affected my perspectives. I was talking to one person who was telling me that Special Education was a drain on funds in schools, especially for the students who could never become productive members of society. Of course I immediately thought he was wrong, but I've thought a lot about his opinion. I really want to teach Special needs students after college, so hearing that he thinks that what I think is one of the most important jobs is sort of irrelevant to helping society was a huge shock, and I was offended. I tried to think about why he had that opinion, when I thought the absolute opposite. I realized that he placed the good of overall society above the good of a single individual. There's no way to argue whether one of us was "righter" than the other. 

I had this in mind when we went over "How do you know?" I knew coming into class that people have very different opinions on things that no one can be considered right about. Other things might be religion, money, politics, music, or even sports. 

When I go out and do research at SSD and interview one of the directors, I know all this will be swimming around in my head. I'm going to make sure that at least half of my interview questions are answerable in facts, so I can have academic, irrefutable information to add to my research. But I also want to ask questions and see how the director feels the system is working, in her opinion. Then I was also hoping to go around Tech and see if I believe everything she said, or see what my opinion differs on. I am certain she believes Tech is doing everything it can do provide services for the disabled. But I also heard a Tech student actually say that Tech is one of the worst schools she's ever seen regarding accessibility for the disabled. Although I will mostly be researching services for physically disabled students, I might also bring up services for students with ADD or other kinds of disorders. I read in a magazine one time about how some colleges are creating special services for students with autism, to allow students with mild autism to attempt a college education. 

I know I'm biased and think that services for Special needs students are imperative, but I will go into my research trying to think of all the students at Tech and how the cuts in budget affect them as well. I think my library research will be more important in finding out facts, but I think in this case the opinion of the director might be very important for my research as well. It's time to find out how well Tech is doing in taking care of all its students equally. 

Communities I'm Interested In

I know I already talked about this in class, but what I really want to do is become a Special Education teacher after college. So my first choice in a community here is the Services for Student with Disabilities (SSD) department at Tech. Also, I'm a huge fan of Tennis and have played almost my entire life, so another community I could do would be the Tennis or varsity sports communities, and do some research with some of the team members to see what it's like.