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Local student with autism makes transition into adulthood, college
YOUNGSTOWN
Jackie Tarr wasn’t 100 percent sure about sending her son to Youngstown State University this fall to study multimedia journalism and volunteer as a coach for the YSU football team.
Brandon Baber, her son, has both autism and a seizure disorder.
“He started college out slow, taking only one class,” Tarr said. “He’s making a lot of friends — it’s been a good opportunity for him.”
He also has had a smooth transition to his first semester. He attributes most of that to support from the YSU football team. Members of the team considered Baber part of the family this fall. Coaches nicknamed him “B-man,” and football players all took Baber under their wings.
Eric Wolford, the former head football coach, said he’s always been passionate about helping autistic kids. He said he and his wife started the No Stone Unturned foundation for people with disabilities.
“I have a passion for helping all young people — especially special-needs kids,” Wolford said. “I really wanted to give [Baber] an identity his first semester at college by being a volunteer coach on the team. Just because a person has autism doesn’t mean they should be written off. That’s why I helped Baber.”
Ron Stoops, assistant football coach, said he was Baber’s former history teacher at Boardman High School. He said he invited Baber to help with YSU football practices at the end of this past summer.
“[Baber] really liked being a volunteer coach. So we all just rolled with it,” Stoops said. “He now has this group that he can be socially connected with.”
Baber’s transition is not the norm.
Experts at the Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence (OCALI) said stories such as Baber’s are still the exception to the norm. Chris Filler, program director for OCALI’s lifespan transitions center, said too many autistic students are not getting sufficient support from their schools to help them transition to college or careers.
“We’re seeing there are some pockets of success around the state — either individual families or programs that succeed — but I would say you’ll find many areas where people are struggling to transition autistic kids to college and careers,” Filler said.
Filler said OCALI sent a survey this year to 162 autistic people to see what types of jobs or careers they got after college. More than 40 percent reported they were unemployed, and the majority who have jobs only work part time.
“A couple of the people surveyed have some really unique, full-time jobs that helps them with their strengths, but that’s an exception and not a rule,” Filler said.
Professionals at the Rich Center for Autism in Youngstown said part of the problem in transitioning autistic students to adulthood is that almost all autistic people are only just hitting adulthood. Autism was seldom diagnosed before the 1990s.
Darlene Unger, director of the Center for Autism Studies at Youngstown State University, said autism became widely recognized in the ’90s when it was first diagnosed in schools.
“Prior to that, these kids were only diagnosed as emotionally disturbed or had mental retardation,” Unger said.
Unger said she’s noticed that some public schools are struggling to provide autistic students with adequate real-world experience to help them successfully transition from school to adulthood, causing some kids to “fall through the cracks.”
She commented that schools are preparing these students well in areas of testing, but not preparing them for employment.
“I think that’s where we’re falling short a lot of time,” she said. “We’re not always giving them help with social skills.”
Jack Zocolo, coordinator of special education and student services at Boardman schools, said he’s noticed schools gradually trying to give additional help to autistic students, providing them guidance to finding colleges and careers after high school.
“It’s never easy trying to transition a kid through school,” Zocolo said. “But it’s especially hard with kids who have a disability. And these kids want help, even after high school, and I don’t think the help should stop after grade 12.”
Zocolo said he helped guide Baber through high school, into a technical center and eventually to YSU. He said Baber was one of his first autistic kids at Boardman schools.
“When [Baber] came into our school systems, we had no autistic kids,” Zocolo said. “I might have had three or four autistic students before him, but that was it. So I had a lot to learn, and I think the school learned a lot from him.”
Filler said she hopes to see more schools step up in helping to transition graduating autistic students to college and adulthood. She said one way to do that is to pinpoint autistic students’ strengths and help the students hone those skills so they can find specified jobs after graduation.
“We cannot stop helping transition autistic kids to adulthood,” Filler said. “We cannot forget those young kids we still need to guide. The positive, I suppose, is that we know more about autism now than ever before. We’re hoping we can help these future kids down the road transition better to adulthood. It’s a matter of communicating with them on this earlier.”