So they could help students on the autism spectrum was one of the main reasons two academics combined to write and publish what looms as an important resource.
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Dr Kim Draisma and Dr Kimberley McMahon-Coleman are confident their book will help students and teachers alike.
The resource, ‘Teaching University Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Guide to Developing Academic Capacity and Proficiency’, will help students all over the country - a proud achievement for the two authors who have a strong link to the University of Wollongong and its Shoalhaven campus.
“It’s aimed particularly at the teachers, particularly university teachers, because we have more and more students on the spectrum coming to university,” Dr McMahon-Coleman said.
“A lot of university lecturers are not necessarily trained teachers, let alone trained to deal with students with complex learning needs.
“We were also aware you have a book with such a title that university students on the spectrum are going to pick it up and read it.”
Dr McMahon-Coleman said it would be refreshing for a student to know there are others like them succeeding at university.
“We hope it's a useful text and hopeful it will be useful for university teachers,” Dr Draisma said.
The book is based on the findings of a five-year study into the experiences of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Compared to the past more people are now aware of ASD.
“There are no more people with Asperger’s syndrome now than before but what happened around the 1970s and more into the 1980s was the expressions high functioning autism and a second expression Asperger’s syndrome came to be used,” Dr Draisma
“People then started to put their hand up to say I have kids in my class who have Asperger’s and that became a non-threatening diagnoses.”
Dr Draisma said parents were also grateful as they found out why their children behaved in such a manner and could get the support they needed.
The book is available at www.footprint.com.au. Search for the title or authors.