The Speech-Language Pathologist's Role in Supporting Autistic Students in Postsecondary Education Settings

Navigating the postsecondary landscape is a complex and daunting journey for many autistic students due to widespread misconceptions about autism among nonautistic peers and educators. Additionally, barriers to self-advocacy limit students' academic and social integration, ultimately compromising their ability to graduate. Despite these challenges, there remains inadequate support for this population with social communication, executive functioning, and self-advocacy. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are well positioned to reduce existing barriers and provide support to autistic students and their postsecondary communities in these needed areas. This clinical focus article highlights the pivotal role SLPs could play in establishing personalized supports for autistic college students and describes how SLPs can leverage their unique skills to fulfill this role.

Drawing from existing literature, clinical expertise, the neurodiversity framework, and lived experiences of autistic college students, we offer guidelines for the indirect and direct supports that SLPs can provide. In addition, we provide a case example and personalized support plan to illustrate the application of direct supports.

Targeted direct and indirect supports are crucial to autistic students' retention, success, and graduation rates and to building a welcoming postsecondary community. This article emphasizes how SLP supports for autistic college students fall within the scope of practice and how these supports can be operationalized through the concrete examples provided.

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.29496335.