Resources for Transition and Job/Employment Supports for Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (work in-progress)

I'm on a quest for more information about transition supports for young adults with autism spectrum disorders after they "age out" of the public school system. In NC, this usually takes place at age 21-22. Parents and guardians must piece together solutions after years of support from the "safe haven" of the school.  


There are many challenges.  From what I can tell, community programs designed to support young adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have not been established at the level required to serve the upcoming "boomlet" that will no longer be eligible for support from public school systems.    There is a need for more vocational rehabilitation counselors and job coaches who have extensive training and experience working with young people with ASD.  


If this is a topic that interests you, take the time to read the following paper:

Adult Autism & Employment: A Guide for Vocational Rehabilitation Professionals (pdf)

Scott Standifer, Ph.D.    This document, in my opinion, is must-read for parents, educators, community job support professionals, VR counselors, etc.



The reality?  


Most existing programs and services for adults with significant disabilities were established when the numbers of youngsters with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) were low. At the same time,  funding for existing programs has been reduced in many communities across the U.S.   Job-skills training and employment opportunities are rare, given our current economic climate and the fact that a high percentage of non-disabled adults are unemployed.


In my opinion, advocacy is part of the solution. Parents, caregivers, guardians, and educators to become better-informed about what transition resources are currently available in their own communities. Perhaps more important is to learn about successful programs in other counties, regions, or states.    How was the program established?  How is the program funded?   If the program was established in collaboration with a university or community college,  find out about it and share the information with university/community college leaders in your area.   


The power of the web and digital media:
Although the number of "hands-on" programs might be disappearing, the Internet has the potential to provide a wealth of resources and a means for parents of young adults with disabilities to connect and share across regions.


To do my part for advocacy, I've started collecting resources related to transition for students with significant disabilities, including autism.  I will post these resources in a couple of months and welcome input from my readers.


In the meantime, I'd like to share a couple of website that I'm adding to my resource list. 


Do2Learn's JobTips
The folks from Do2Learn have created the Job Tips website, "designed to help individuals with disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder explore career interests, seek and obtain employment, and successfully maintain employment". 


Although I found the site a bit difficult to navigate, it was worth taking the time to explore.  It includes extensive information about various jobs and careers, an on-line interest survey, social skills assessments, examples of job-specific environmental demands, and strategies for getting and keeping a job.  


Although some of the material is suitable for higher-functioning students with disabilities, there is plenty that can be used with students who have developed some basic job-task skills but have not yet developed the appropriate communication, coping, or social skills required for most workplaces.


On the site, I found a good number of video modeling clips for "on-the job" social and coping skills, something that I'm focusing on during group activities with the students I work with at Wolfe school.  I used some of the activities on the SMARTBoard with students last week, with success.   What I really would like is a "serious game" related to on-the-job social, coping, and conversation/ communication skills.  (It is possible that this wish might come true - stay posted for more information!)


Jobs4Autism
The following information was taken from the Jobs4Autism website, a "resource of job success and job failure stories for individuals with autism, their family members, job coaches and caregivers. It allows everyone to share job ideas and help find long-term employment opportunities for those with autism."


Job4Autism was initially a collaborative project among four undergraduate students at the University of Notre Dame, guided by Professor Khalil Matta.  The project was taken over by NameStormers, as one of the company's founders is the parent of a young adult with ASD.


RELATED
Posted for your convenience is a list of some of the links related to Jobs4Autism, from the NameStormers website. I've added some descriptive information for some of the resources. Below this section are other related resources.

Autism Transition Handbook (Online)
Jobs4Autism Facebook Page
CNN: 10 sites worth checking out if your child has autism
Jennifer Bixler, John Bonifield, CNN, 4/1/10


Temple Grandin's TED Talk: The world needs all kinds of minds 

"Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism as a child, talks about how her mind works -- sharing her ability to "think in pictures," which helps her solve problems that neurotypical brains might miss. She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids." 


Community Services for Autistic Adults and Children (Maryland)


Apiritech
"...a non-profit organization with a mission to provide a path for higher-functioning individuals on the Autism Spectrum to realize their potential through gainful employment"
Susan Senator, Author, Consultant, Mother of a young adult with ASD
Amelia Starr, Author, Consultant, Mother of a young adult with ASD
Lettuce Work Foundation (Ohio)
"The Lettuce Work Foundation is a non-profit 501c3 charity dedicated to serving young adults with autism and training them for the future. Our goal is to build a fully-operational, self-sustaining commercial greenhouse business that provides school-to-work transition services, job training and employment opportunities for young autistic adults in a professional work environment."


NC RESOURCES
Autism Society of North Carolina
Autism Society's Transition to Adulthood Guidelines (pdf)
ASMC Supported Employment, Mecklenburg County, NC
TEACCH Supported Employment for Adults with Autism
TEACCH Types of Supported Employment Jobs
TEACCH Supported Employment Models
The Arc of North Carolina: Supported Employment Info
The Arc of Union County: Employment Services


OTHER
Vocational Rehabilitation Service Models for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders Project
Current Trends in Autism Employment (pdf)
Scott Standifer, MU Disability Policy & Studies
Autism Works National Conference, March 3 & 4, 2011
"Nationally, the number of people with Autism applying for vocational rehabilitation services increased 300% from 2003 to 2008."


More to come!

Games to lift stress away: Flower, flOw, and Cloud, from thatgamecompany

This is a cross-post of a popular post from the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog that I think will be of interest to TechPsych readers:


As I set out to revisit some of my early posts on this blog, I came across a link to a review the Flower game, created for the Playstation 3 by Jenova Chen, Kellee Santiago, and other members of thatgamecompany. It is good to know that this group continues to work towards the goal of creating innovative games that provide gaming experiences that are calming, pleasant to use, and unlike most game genres.

The following video review by Pete Dorr won't give enough details about the game to spoil it for you. Go ahead and watch the review!


Since I don't have a PS3 (yet), I'm sharing a couple of reviews of Flower that I found on the IGN website:

"thatgamecompany's mellow, beautiful adventure through the dreams of plants starts out so disarmingly pleasant that one would be forgiven for assuming it's just a game about flying around and picking up flower petals. It's not until one experiences the couple-hour experience from beginning to end (preferably with 5.1 audio, the lights off and no human distractions) that the game really gets its emotional hooks into you. Without ever introducing a single line of dialogue, any characters (at least in the traditional sense) or clear goals, Flower takes you on a ride that's over far too soon, yet somehow seems just right for what it's trying to do: suck you into a world without the usual video game trappings while playing with your emotions in a way no amount of manufactured tear-jerk dialogue or surprise deaths ever could. It really is unlike anything else you'll ever play and stands as one of the best (if not the best) examples of SixAxis motion controls on the PS3."

Who knew the meaning of life could be so simple?
(Ryan Clements, IGN)

"thatgamecompany has depicted something that I never once imagined: what would a flower's dream look like if we could see it? Flower, a PS3 downloadable that comes as a spiritual successor to flOw, is one of the most beautiful games that I've ever played. Not just because the visuals are entirely breathtaking, but also because the experience of playing it offers more enjoyment, emotion and enlightenment than any game I've tried in years."

"Before you read on, keep in mind that Flower isn't quite for everyone. There will be those that experiment with it but won't see the point, as it strays so far from the traditional spectrum of gameplay systems, but it's truly worth playing...Flower is a poem, where you as the player participate in the dreams of flowers confined to the ever-changing landscape of a colorless city. Each dream, or stage, revolves around a different theme and gameplay objective, but your method of control remains the same: tilt the controller to direct a series of flower petals through beautiful environments. Press any button to stir up a wind that will coax them along. As you begin with one flower petal, you'll soon touch other flowers and gather more petals, generally influencing the environment in a way that pleases the dreamer. This setup works amazingly well to create varying tasks for you to enjoy..."

Flower was listed as one one of the best games for the Playstation 3 for HDTV, along with a flOw, a 2006 game from the same company:

Best Playstation 3 Games For Showing Off Your New HDTV



Flower

"Supported HD Output: 720p, 1080i, 1080p- From the same developers that brought you the serene flOw comes Flower, whose gameplay has players guiding a flower petal across gorgeously rendered fields and plains, replete with individually modeled leaves of grass that blow and sway in the wind. Colorful, peaceful, and exhillerating, Flower is a difficult game to describe, and simply must be experienced in all it’s HD beauty to truly be appreciated. A real gem."

(Flower is played with the Sixaxis wireless game controller that can sense motions and provide precision in interactive game play. The Sixaxis was recently replaced by Duoalshock 3, which provides motion sensing and rumble. I'm not sure if the new controller works with Flower.)



flOw
"Supported HD Output: 720p, 1080i, 1080p- Calm, serene, and beautiful in it’s simplicity, flOw was one of the first PSN titles released when the Playstation 3 launched in November 2006, and it’s still a gorgeous work of art. From the calming music, to the simple gameplay, flOw proves that you don’t need high resolution textures and thousands of animations to produce a beautiful image."

"FlOw is a game about piloting an aquatic organism through a surreal biosphere where players consume other organisms, evolve, and advance their organisms to the abyss."

I came across Cloud about four years ago, when I was looking for non-violent games that could support relaxation and stress-reduction. Cloud was created by some of the members of thatgamecompany when they were students at UCS.

I later posted about how I used the game in in my work as a school psychologist:

CLOUD GAME*

Cloud is a relaxing, nonviolent game, created by graduate students at USC. The character, a child, flies around, collecting clouds and putting them into puzzles in the sky. The music is very soothing. The game is free and can be downloaded through the website. This game could be used to help relax students with anxiety disorders, Asperger syndrome, etc., develop coping strategies. Here is the link to the Cloud video trailer.

(I use the Cloud Game as a form of crisis intervention with students undergoing high level of agitation and stress at the middle and high school level.)

Below is a video of the Cloud game, which was designed for use on a computer. It still appears to be available for free from the USC website.



FlOw was Jenova Chen's MFA Thesis, built upon Mihaly Csikszenmihalyi's Flow Theory:

"being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."

The game went on to become an award-winning PS3 game. The early web-based version of flOw is free, and some of the gameplay can be done using your finger on a touch screen. The music is relaxing, almost hypnotic.



Why this is important:

There is a need for games that can be used for relaxation, as most commercial games focus on action and thrills, often delivered through violence.

(Pictures and videos are from the IGN website, YouTube, and related websites.)

Video clips that help students with autism learn and feel calm at the same time!

One of the schools I serve as a school psychologist has a number of students with severe autism.  Over the past year or so, each classroom was outfitted with a new interactive white board (IWB). We've found that multimedia content displayed on these large screens is much more engaging than what is viewed on computers with much smaller displays.

The exciting news is that some of the students who have minimal interest in computers pay a great deal of attention to activities on the IWBs.  Students who have self-stimulatory or repetitive behaviors that interfere with their ability to engage in traditional activities don't seem to exhibit these patterns nearly as much when the focus is on the IWB.   In my opinion, IWBs are great tools for reaching and teaching young people who have autism spectrum disorders!

I'm in the process of creating a variety of short video clips that teachers can embed in learning activities that also provide a way for students to reduce their levels of anxiety, agitation, and/or repetitive behaviors.

The following videos are my first experiments, and are not as polished as I'd like.  They are best viewed on a large-screen display or IWB, set to high definition.  Although various students have viewed these videos a few times this week, they were a great hit. In some cases, we found it useful to loop the video, especially for students who require repetition of content.

The videos were shot using a small hand-held Panasonic HD camcorder, and quickly edited in iMovie. The music was either taken from the iMovie music library or created using riffs in Garage Band, an Apple iLife product.

Enjoy!

Lily Pond and Music

In this video, I used a few subtitles to direct the viewer to points of interest, such as the little grasshopper hiding in the pink lily and a dragonfly, which appears near the end of the video.

Butterflies and Flowers Set to Music

I set this version to piano music for a student who listens to piano music as a coping strategy. I plan to create another version with other genres of music. This particular score was created with piano riffs from Garage Band.


Up Close at the Charleston Aquarium - with relaxing music

Even the most inattentive students paid maximum to this video when it was looped!  I think they liked the variety of sea life, especially the turtles.  Tip:  If you plan to capture video at an aquarium, plan to visit at a time where there are few visitors!

I can't wait to take my video camera to the Atlanta aquarium.

Minnows and Music


The minnows swimming around in the murky green tank are a little boring, but things get slightly more exciting when the bait-shop owner feeds them. The music makes up for what the video lacks. The students didn't mind at all.


Jellyfish at the Discovery Place Aquarium, Charlotte, NC - with music

I'd like to visit Discovery Place at a less-crowded time and re-capture the jellyfish in action from a better vantage point.

Link to post: Chill in an on-line tropical paradise from Unity3d

Take a moment to read my post on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog about a free on-line virtual tropical paradise. If you work with young people who have stress and anxiety, or need tools for calming down when agitated, this application might be worth a try. I'm planning on using it with some of the students I work with who have autism spectrum disorders.

This application would be great on an interactive whiteboard or display to teach a few lessons about landforms and tropical climates!