Starting uni with ASD/ADHD etc

[cakesandtea]

DS got through clearing into Brunel. The application was unplanned, so we just applied for DSA and finance. He will be living at home.

Any experience of Brunel disability services?
What does the letter from GP to DSA need to contain? Is the confirmation of diagnosis enough? How long does it take, given the course starts in a couple of weeks?

Any advice on how to succeed and what pitfalls to avoid?
DS panic at exams and underperforms, is not good with wordy exam questions, has confidence issues...

Congratulations to your DS. Don't know what Brunel student services are like but you need to make contact with them now. If they are good, they will have arrangements in place for students with ASD and will give you much more guidance than I can. They should put a support plan in place and may have special induction procedures and mentoring. Do not assume that someone else will pass the information about your DS on to the university, nor that the university has a good way of disseminating that information.

As your DS will be considered an adult, you cannot find out how he is doing from the staff once there, but you can tell them things which they will take into account (many parents forget this). Find out if he will have a personal tutor and who this is.

Universities are very varied in what they provide. Some are brilliant (and some are terrible) but you will (probably) have to help DS access the support services in the first instance. Students with ASD don't tend to access the help they need.

Students with ASD don't tend to access the help they need

I think a lot of that boils down to self-awareness and awareness of the exact type of problems they encounter, so they either can or cannot self-advocate. A lot of it depends on their individual strengths and weaknesses as to whether that system works for them.

SN support at dd's school was 30 mins per week 1 to 1 on the basis of let me know what you have a problem with then I'll find a way to help you, which they said was how it worked in Uni so would teach the pupils how to access the right support.
That setup didn't work for dd at all, but it did for a lot of other pupils.

If I was you, I'd try and find out from the Uni exactly how their support system works and see if and how he'll be able to access it to get the best out of it.

Hope all is going well. We are in the same boat - lives at home. Dd is loving university but appreciates being able to come home to normality each night. Has lots of support from access team but hasn't bothered with dsa as she doesn't need specific assistance and has a computer already plus qualified for free travel due to her blackouts. Early days but going well.

Her biggest worry is money, she is fortunate that due to living at home and her working prior she won't any loans for at least two years unless she decides to move out. This reduced a lot of her anxiety