The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3 - 36

Amy N. Miele * Justin W. Kelley * Florence A. Hamrick

. . . making transitions to new and
different environments is often
challenging for people with ASD .
New or unanticipated sensory input
from people or the environment
can be extremely disconcerting,
including fire alarms/drills,
noisy residence halls, and even
non-routine interactions, such
as conduct meetings and formal
hearings . Life with a roommate
who does not have structured
routines can also be unsettling.

people with asD commonly have difficulties with generalizing, drawing inferences,
or developing conclusions (VanBergeijk et
al., 2008) that may be readily apparent for
people without asD. By their nature, formal
codes, guidelines, and rules usually require
interpretation in order to be implemented (or
knowingly violated), but students with asD
are often disadvantaged by rules that are not
concrete or clearly specified (livingston, et. al,
2013; thierfeld Brown & Wolf, 2014).

Insistence on Routine or Sameness
adhering to relatively strict routines provides
predictability, so making transitions to new
and different environments is often challeng-

ing for people with asD (White et al., 2011).
new or unanticipated sensory input from
people or the environment can be extremely
disconcerting (apa, 2013), including fire
alarms/drills, noisy residence halls, and even
non-routine interactions, such as conduct
meetings and formal hearings (livingston, et
al., 2013). life with a roommate who does not
have structured routines can also be unsettling
(White et al., 2011). routine may help people
with asD partially offset difficulties exercising impulse control and executive functioning (hoffman, 2016; White et al., 2011), and
distractions found in new, less predictable, or
relatively unstructured environments can lead
to lapses in self-care, such as personal hygiene
(White et al., 2011), exacerbating potentials of
loneliness or social isolation, and challenges
living with roommates and other residents.
repetitive behaviors or persistent thought
patterns (apa, 2013) and fixation on a limited
set of interests (national institute of mental
health, 2016; pinder-amaker, 2014) are also
documented characteristics of people with
asD. Depending on particular behaviors or
thoughts, students with asD may pace, rock,
or go deeply into concentration. in interpersonal interactions, students with asD may
introduce the same topic or ask the same set
of questions, perhaps giving the impression of
intellectual or cognitive impairment.

Additional Symptoms and Treatment
the severity of asD symptoms or characteristics can range from very mild to quite severe
(newschaffer, et al., 2007). asD is often accompanied by intellectual disabilities, and
both are classified by the Dsm-5 as neurodevelopmental disorders (apa, 2013); however,

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3

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