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The annual prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the U.S. indicates there are more than 50,000 youth and emerging adults with ASD who are graduating from high school and/or seeking employment. ASD is characterized by social communication deficits, repetitive behaviors or interests, and for some, an intellectual disability. However, improvements in social and behavioral deficits observed in youth with ASD during high school begin to slow as they emerge into adulthood. Thus, individuals with ASD struggle to initiate and maintain social relationships in both personal and professional settings, which may be contributing to their high unemployment rate (50-75%).
Although stakeholders, researchers, popular media, and the National Institute of Mental Health highlight the need to provide services to emerging adults with ASD, available services to support their transition through early adulthood are limited. Thus, many youth and emerging adults with ASD become disengaged or age out of available services, while others are increasing their efforts to access federal and state-supported vocational rehabilitation services. Hence, the resulting high unemployment rate and increased access of vocational rehabilitation services demonstrates a clear need to develop evidence-based services for emerging adults with ASD facing critical barriers to employment after high school.
Thus, the social work field is at a critical juncture where the development and evaluation of novel interventions can identify evidence-based practices targeting the enhancement of vocational outcomes for emerging adults with ASD.
Methods:
This symposium will include four presentations from leaders in the field using national datasets and the evaluation of behavioral interventions to enhance our understanding of vocational readiness and outcomes for emerging adults with ASD.
Results:
The first presentation will report on the current state of employment among individuals with autism spectrum disorders and the importance of shifting vocational rehabilitation services to secondary education settings. The second presentation will review the outcomes and mechanism of action from a series of randomized controlled trials that evaluated the program “Virtual Reality Job Interview Training.” The training was found to improve interviewing skills and vocational outcomes for emerging adults with ASD or adults with severe mental illness. The third presentation will review the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of “Supported employment, Comprehensive Cognitive Enhancement and Social Skills,” which improved work-related social skills and vocational readiness for emerging adults with ASD. The final presentation will review the findings from a randomized controlled trial that evaluated the efficacy of “Working Together,” a multi-family psychoeducation intervention that facilitates family centered support for emerging adults with ASD. Trainees, compared to controls, were found to spend more hours searching for employment and working more hours for pay.
Conclusions and Implications:
Our discussant for the symposium is a stakeholder and expert on emerging adults with ASD. He is a vocational rehabilitation counselor and a special education teacher who has a diagnosis on the autism spectrum, and will discuss the implication of the findings with the speakers and audience.