Launching Your Autistic Youth to Successful Adulthood. Katharina Manassis

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      • parents’ expectations of paid employment and self-sufficiency in adulthood.

      Additional predictors found by other authors (Chiang et al. 2013; Roux et al. 2013) include:

      • high school graduation

      • having older parents

      • higher-income households

      • higher parental education

      • better social and conversational skills

      • career counseling in high school.

      Predictors of success in post-secondary education in Coury et al.’s (2014) review included:

      • high school course work which was on a diploma track (versus courses leading to a more basic high school completion certificate)

      • high academic performance

      • high scores on college entrance exams

      • participation in extracurricular activities

      • experience of the daily living skills needed on campus (including socialization and technology use)

      • good executive functions

      • participation in innovative transitional programs (one example of these is dual enrollment programs where students do some college courses during their final years of high school special education programs).

      Comfort around disclosing or not disclosing one’s disability in various contexts, and the ability to advocate for appropriate disability-related accommodations for oneself, are further skills which were considered helpful for college.

      Additional predictors found by other authors (Anderson, Carter and Stephenson 2018; Briley, Harden and Tucker-Drob 2014) include:

      • positive parental expectations

      • early disclosure of disability (allowing early access to supports).

      Before you rush out to address all of the factors listed, recognize that research in this area is limited and, for several reasons, results may need to be taken with the proverbial grain of salt. First, the association between a factor (say, high parental income) and an outcome (say, paid employment) may or may not be causal. For example, high family income may result in better transitional supports and therefore better outcomes, or highly competent youth with ASD may require fewer transitional interventions and start earning money quickly, reducing the financial burden to families. Alternatively, a third factor (e.g. high parental education) may account for both high parental income and a better chance of obtaining paid employment for the youth. In short, a factor associated with an outcome does not necessarily cause it.

      Second, most studies reviewed are cross-sectional, meaning all factors are measured at one point in time. In order to conclude that one thing leads to another, a longitudinal study which follows large numbers of youth over many years is much more convincing than a cross-sectional one. Unfortunately, longitudinal studies are very expensive, so they are rarely done.

      Third, just because a finding holds true for a large number of autistic youth doesn’t mean it will necessarily apply to your son or daughter. Each individual on the autism spectrum is unique, with different strengths, weaknesses, personal history, hopes, fears, and sources of motivation. As a parent, you know about these unique characteristics and can interpret the research evidence in that light.

      Nevertheless, there are some common themes among these factors which may make a difference in relation to your child. Several factors highlight the benefits of early preparation for adulthood. For example, working in high school predicts later work, diploma-track courses in high school predict post-secondary education, and so on. Perhaps you can foster one or more of these factors if your child is still in high school. Several factors focus on independent living skills. These include independent self-care, chores or other responsibilities around the house, and daily living skills needed to live on campus. Developing your child’s routines related to independent living is therefore a helpful strategy. Finally, positive parental expectations show up repeatedly in relation to positive outcomes after high school. Thus, when you set the bar high your youth with ASD is more likely to succeed than when not.

Intervention programs and case managers

      In addition to the factors reviewed already, you may wonder which intervention programs are helpful in aiding transition to post-secondary education and/or employment. This is a relatively new area of research, so findings for most interventions are preliminary. For example, video modeling of social-communicative skills was found to improve these skills in two college students with Asperger syndrome (Mason et al. 2012), but a group of autistic adolescents doing an online transition planning program did no better than a control group (Hatfield et al. 2017).

      As mentioned, large-scale longitudinal studies are ideal when evaluating what makes a difference to youth outcomes. There is one such study in the field: the National Longitudinal Transition Study. This study found that case management in adolescence was associated with increased community and social participation in adulthood (Myers et al. 2015). The authors concluded that case management may be crucial for optimizing adult outcomes in ASD. Therefore, if you are going to seek out one intervention to help your child succeed in adulthood, seek out a case manager who has experience with ASD! The role of case managers is discussed further in Chapter 3.

Robert’s story continues

      Having reviewed what is known about transitional challenges and positive predictors, let’s return to Robert’s story. When we left Robert, he had just been referred to a psychiatrist for antidepressant treatment. Fortunately, the psychiatrist did not merely review his depressive symptoms, which might have resulted in medication treatment, but examined the developmental changes that contributed to Robert’s deterioration and made it difficult for his family to help him. She concluded that Robert had a depressing lifestyle but medication was unlikely to solve this problem. Instead, she proposed talking to Robert and his parents about realizing his hopes for life as an adult.

      She began by encouraging Robert to remember what he used to enjoy in high school. Initially, this made Robert quite sad, but then he started wondering about similar activities that might be available to him now. In his community, there was a public library which carried many books and videos related to Robert’s favorite game and a low-cost “pay as you go” gym which did not require a commitment by participants. Both interested Robert. Robert also had a favorite teacher who was his mentor in high school. After a call from the psychiatrist, he agreed to meet with Robert occasionally to encourage his progress. Robert was more inclined to listen to this mentor than to his parents.

      Next, the psychiatrist talked to Robert and his parents about how to support attendance at these activities. The need for a regular wake-up time and reliable transportation was identified. His parents protested that learning to use an alarm clock and a public bus seemed like overly modest goals relative to Robert’s good level of functioning in high school. However, these goals had several positive effects: first, they re-introduced some activity and sleep routines into Robert’s daily life, which improved his physical and mental health; second, they interrupted his unhealthy eating and gaming habits, at least for a few hours at a time; third, they brought Robert in contact СКАЧАТЬ