Which Community College is Best for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Approximately 7 percent of Americans cope with various degrees of hearing loss, according to The New School. While most community colleges offer sign language courses, many students who require hearing assistance need more resources. Students who are hearing impaired often need access to a sign language interpreter for courses and require accommodations for oral or written assignments.

To help hearing-impaired students maximize their academic opportunities, community colleges are working to diversify their hearing services. With new forms of technology, experimental instructional courses, and additional venues for support, students who are hearing impaired can access an incredible cache of tools at a number of community college campuses across the country.

This video offers some strategies for teachers of hearing-impaired students.

What Hearing Support Services Should a Community College Offer?

According to The New School, an institution dedicated to providing classes for hearing impaired students, individuals who require hearing assistance may need a range of tools and support systems. As each individual student, regardless of hearing ability, has his or her own strengths, struggles, and needs, the best community colleges will provide a diverse array of resources for individual guidance. Examples of tools that may benefit hearing-impaired students include:

• Sign language interpreting services in the classroom
• Access to class materials and notes in advance so interpreters and/or students can prepare for upcoming lessons
• Seating accommodations to place students who have a minor ability to hear

Historically, community colleges were established to help students develop vocational skills. However, in today’s academic environment, America’s top universities are specifically recruiting directly from community colleges!

Four-year universities traditionally evaluate a student’s overall GPA, standardized test scores, and extracurricular involvement. However, these high school progress points do not always accurately predict how a student will perform at the collegiate level.

Subsequently, a rising number of universities are specifically recruiting students who are enrolled or who have graduated from a community college. Many university leaders assert that community college students and graduates have accurately proved their collegiate skills and abilities. Therefore, students hoping to attend a four year institution may want to start at their local community college first to add a competitive edge to their application.

Why are Universities Seeking Community College Students?

Proof of Student Success and Excellence

While many students who are seeking affordable, convenient, and program-specific courses often pursue degree pathways through community colleges, many higher education leaders are striving to shift motivated community college students into a university education.

A central catalyst for this new focus on community college applicants is most notably based upon studies that reveal the soaring success rates among students who transfer from a two year institution to a four year school. In fact, as the Longview News Journal reveals, “Studies show that students who complete community college course work before going to four-year institutions tend to graduate at a higher rate

With beautiful choreography, artful costumes, enthralling music, and captivating performances, the art of dance can provide community college students with an array of career opportunities. Whether you are interested in learning about the techniques of production and choreography or hoping to hone your own dancing skills, community colleges are an excellent venue of opportunity.

Careers in Dance

Due to the myriad of facets involved in a single dance performance, there are many types of jobs in the dance industry. Foremost, for students interested in pursuing professional dancing through their local community college courses, professional dancers are typically trained to perform within a variety of different genres. Examples of popular dancing genres include folk, ethnic, tap, hip hop, jazz, ballet, and regional.

Yet, since dancing can often be stressful to one’s body, many dancers choose to cease their professional performances as they reach their early to mid-30s. Despite this relatively short performance window, professional dancers can continue to work in this field by pursuing one of the many related performance positions.

For individuals who have a background in dance, choreography is a popular long-term profession. As Career Overview explains, dancers are typically paired with a choreographer, who helps the dancers to create, perfect, and learn new forms of existing dances. Choreographers train dancers at rehearsals, during practice, and are also commonly involved in dancing auditions.

Data from a 2002 study shows that the median income earned by choreographers is generally around $30,000, although the top-earning choreographers reported

According to the Autism Society of America (ASA), the number of diagnosed autistic children in the United States has been growing significantly in the last several decades.

In fact, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, their 2007 study confirmed that approximately 1 out of every 150 children will be diagnosed with autism. This rise in cases adds to the nearly 1.5 million Americans who are currently coping with the effects of autism spectrum disorder.

Due to the rising need for autism support, community colleges have created a variety of autism training programs to help students specialize in helping autistic children. As ASA supports, “The spotlight shown on autism as a result of the prevalence increase opens opportunities for the nation to consider how to serve these families facing a lifetime of support for their children.”

What is Autism?

Autism spectrum disorder is a highly complex developmental disability that typically influences how a child thinks, behaves, and interprets various interactions. Labeled as a “spectrum disorder,” autism has an incredibly vast range of symptoms and signals.

Typically, children with autism will begin to show signs of this disorder within the first three years of their lives. Since autism is not a short term condition, but a lifetime component of a child’s life and thinking process, there is no quick cure for this disorder.

Furthermore, since scientists are unsure as to what the exact cause of autism really is, experts assert that parents with autistic