STARTing Over (Harwood et al., 2025)

Purpose: An increasing number of autistic students are pursuing higher education to enhance career opportunities, achieve personal growth, and increase independence. Nonetheless, many encounter difficulties in transitioning to and thriving in this environment, despite the support offered by universities. Here, we review the preliminary data from a social communication course embedded within a university-level postsecondary transition program designed to support academic success and retention for first-year autistic college students.

Method: Using a group pretest, posttest design, we employ quantitative evaluations and retention data of 17 autistic students enrolled within the Summer Transition Program for Autism to Promote Retention and Training (START) program to determine the effectiveness of a social communication course for autistic first-year college students.

Results: Autistic students enrolled in the social communication course demonstrated a significant reduction in self-reported Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors as measured by the Social Responsiveness Scale–Second Edition at posttest and increased communicative competence in “Meetings” on the Self-Perceived Commutative Competence scale. Sixteen out of 17 START students successfully completed the full academic year and expressed intent to return to the university the following year (retention rate = 94%).

Conclusion: The current study provides preliminary evidence that a social communication course may be an effective method to support social communication and well-being of first-year autistic students enrolled in university.

Supplemental Material S1. Description of START program.

Supplemental Material S2. Means and standard deviations of D-REF for START students.

Harwood, V., Macaruso, L., Zuccolo, G., Tabile, A., Schiarizzi-Tobin, N., & Musella, K. (2025). STARTing over: creating an inclusive social communication course for first-year autistic college students. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_PERSP-24-00157