Carol Schall

Transition From School to Adulthood for Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorder: What We Know and What We Need to Know

Youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience poor outcomes in the areas of independence, employment, and postsecondary education. This article provides a critical review of the key aspects of the transition process and identifies recommendations for policy and practice. The review highlights the literature and explores recommendations across the manifold elements of this transition, including social and psychological development, high school curriculum, work, and college. Five policy recommendations are outlined in the areas of school curriculum, employment development, postsecondary education, inclusion with nondisabled peers, and systematic instruction. Finally, the authors offer recommendations for further research in the areas of social interaction, increased academic and vocational rigor, employment, technology, independence, and postsecondary education.

Autism spectrum disorders in adolescence and early adulthood: Characteristics and issues

Much has been written about the diagnostic characteristics that distinguish autism spectrum disorders (ASD) from other disorders of childhood for toddlers and elementary school age children. There is a paucity of description of the characteristics and needs of youth and young adults with ASD. This paper presents a description of the characteristics of ASD in adolescence and young adulthood and presents three case studies to illuminate the issues confronting individuals with ASD, their families and support providers.

Project SEARCH for Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Increasing Competitive Employment On Transition From High School

Supporting youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the transition to adulthood is challenging. This article provides a description of how Project SEARCH, a model transition program for youth with disabilities, was used to help youth with ASD gain competitive employment. This article includes two case studies and a thorough description of the additional supports provided to increase successful employment on graduation from high school. Key Project SEARCH program components include setting a goal for employment, providing successive intensive internships in a community business, and assuring collaboration between school and adult services staff. Supports specific to students with ASD include providing intensive instruction in social, communication, and job skills; visual supports; and work routine and structure. These supports are described in the provided case studies.

Transition from school to work for students with autism spectrum disorders: understanding the process and achieving better outcomes.

Individuals and their parents frequently turn to pediatricians, adolescent medicine specialists, and psychologists to answer questions about the course and outcomes of their disorder. This article provides a description of the characteristics of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in adolescence and early adulthood. It also describes essential elements of high school programs designed to increase positive outcomes for youth with ASD and provides detailed information about various employment support models. Finally, the implications of transition programming for medical specialists and psychologists are discussed.

Positive behavior support: Supporting adults with autism spectrum disorders in the workplace

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can present challenging behavior at work. In fact, it is likely that the presence of challenging behavior can act as a major barrier for individuals with ASD achieving competitive employment. Community-based work environments can present challenges in the implementation of behavior intervention plans. Positive behavior support (PBS) is a behavior intervention model that presents opportunities to implement socially valid behavior inter- ventions in supported and competitive workplaces. This article describes the PBS model and provides a case example for an individual with ASD at work. Finally this article presents recommendations for future research in supporting individuals with ASD at work.

Employment for adults with autism spectrum disorders: A retrospective review of a customized employment approach.

Over the past few decades, there has been an increase in prevalence of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and those children are now becoming young adults in need of competitive integrated employment (CIE). Customized employment (CE) is one pathway to employment that has been successful for other individuals with developmental disabilities (DD), though research has been very limited on the effectiveness with individuals with ASD. This paper provides a retrospective review of 64 individuals with ASD who came to our program from 2009 to 2014 for supported employment services as referred by the state vocational rehabilitation services agency. Employment specialists engaged in situational assessment, discovery, job development, customized job descriptions, on-site training and support, positive behavioral supports, and job retention techniques. The employment specialists were responsible for tracking their actual time spent working directly with or for the jobseeker with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). All vocational rehabilitation clients with ASD served during this time successfully secured CIE, and maintained their employment with ongoing supports, with intensity of support time decreasing over time. The majority (63/64, 98.4%) of individuals successfully secured CIE through the use of supported employment, in 72 unique employment positions. Of the majority of the individuals who secured employment, 77% (50) individuals indicated that they had never worked before and additional 18% (12) reported having short intermittent histories of employment. Despite this lack of employment experience, in all cases the jobseeker directed the job search and ultimately the job selection.

Employment Interventions for Individuals with ASD: The Relative Efficacy of Supported Employment With or Without Prior Project SEARCH Training.

This paper presents findings from a retrospective observational records review study that compares the outcomes associated with implementation of supported employment (SE) with and without prior Project SEARCH with ASD Supports (PS-ASD) on wages earned, time spent in intervention, and job retention. Results suggest that SE resulted in competitive employment for 45 adults with ASD. Twenty-five individuals received prior intervention through PS-ASD while the other 20 individuals received SE only. Individuals in this sample who received PS-ASD required fewer hours of intervention. Additionally, individuals in the PS-ASD group achieved a mean higher wage and had higher retention rates than their peers who received SE only. Further research with a larger sample is needed to confirm these findings.

The Americans with Disabilities Act--Are We Keeping Our Promise? An Analysis of the Effect of the ADA on the Employment of Persons with Disabilities.

Since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, little has changed regarding the employment of people with disabilities. This article will review and analyze data from many sources regarding the employment of people with disabilities. Included in this analysis is employment data, compliance data collected by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and data regarding the attitudes of employers complying with the ADA. This analysis reveals that the ADA has had minimal impact on changing patterns of discrimination that decrease the employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Finally, the author makes specific recommendations that may change attitudes that lead to discrimination against people with disabilities.

Effects of an employer-based intervention on employment outcomes for youth with significant support needs due to autism

The purpose of this study was to develop and investigate an employer-based 9-month intervention for high school youth with autism spectrum disorder to learn job skills and acquire employment. The intervention modified a program titled Project SEARCH and incorporated the use of applied behavior analysis to develop Project SEARCH plus Autism Spectrum Disorder Supports. A randomized clinical trial compared the implementation of Project SEARCH plus Autism Spectrum Disorder Supports with high school special education services as usual. Participants were 49 high-school-aged individuals between the ages of 18 and 21 years diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder and eligible for supported employment. Students also had to demonstrate independent self-care. At 3 months post-graduation, 90% of the treatment group acquired competitive, part-time employment earning US

Transition from High School to Adulthood for Adolescents and Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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