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The onus rests with the reader to explore and investigate the relevant information and alternatives for each individual.
Information sent out does not imply that Autism South Africa underwrites or endorses any particular therapy, intervention, method or medication. Autism South Africa assumes no responsibility for the use made of any information provided herein.
Autism Into Adulthood — Making the Transition
By Jennifer Van Pelt, MA
Social Work Today
Vol. 8 No. 5 P. 12
Children with autism mature into adults who want to attend college, work, and have a social life. What services are needed to help them achieve these milestones?
Every day we see or hear another story in the news, on television, on the Internet, or in a popular magazine about issues related to children with autism. Awareness is growing, and more research is helping parents better understand their children’s unique behaviors and needs. Healthcare, education, and social services offer options for parents of young children with autism that did not exist years ago.
But what happens when children diagnosed on the autistic spectrum grow up? Increasingly, parents of older teenagers and young adults are seeking assistance for transitioning to adulthood, and adults who have grown up with an autism diagnosis or who may be newly diagnosed are facing challenges with employment, social relationships, and daily living.
According to Pamela Dixon Thomas, PhD, LP, a psychologist with the University of Michigan Autism and Communication Disorders Center (UMACC), adults with autism face challenges that children with autism often do not. “Adults face discrimination that comes from a lack of understanding about autism. The tolerance that is extended to children with autism is often lacking,” she notes. Although autism is receiving substantial attention in the scientific community and from the press, adult autism and related issues have been neglected.
Transitions for Autistic Teens
Teenagers with Autism Can Extend School, Start College or Begin Work
Apr 21, 2008 Melissa Hincha-Ownby
Teens With Autism Can Attend College. - stock.xchng http://www.sxc.hu
As teenagers with autism transition into young adults, they have several options. Navigating the maze of transition services can be confusing.
Much of the media attention to autism spectrum disorders is tailored towards parents and caregivers of young children. However, children with autism grow up to be teenagers and young adults with autism. For parents of these autistic teenagers, the question is no longer a matter of which autism intervention to try, but helping their child make the transition to young adulthood.
Extending High School
Many children on the autism spectrum, even those with Asperger’s Syndrome or those that are high-functioning, do not graduate from high school at 17 or 18 as their typically developing peers do. In the United States, these young adults can remain in the high school system until they are 21 years of age and still receive services set forth in an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
Transition to adulthood
24 March 2010
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Autism (APPGA) commissions reports and surveys on a wide-range of autism-related topics.
APPGA has launched a new report following their Inquiry into Transition for young people with autism. Transition into adulthood looks at the experiences of transition of young people, their families and carers and professionals. The report found that although there are pockets of good practice, transition services are still failing most young people, and it makes some clear recommendations to Government and local authorities to address these shortcomings.
You can download the full Transition into adulthood report at the bottom of this page. There is also an executive summary and an easy read version.
Phil Hope MP, Minister for Care Services, spoke at the launch of Transition into adulthood.
“The needs of many people with autism are often misunderstood and to many do not get the support they need. I want to make clear from the outset that I know this and that I am fully on their side.
This report by the All Party Group is a very informative contribution to the work we are doing to improve transitions for young disabled people. It reminds us why focusing on transitions for young people with autism and their families is so important. It tells us that young people’s voices are not always being heard at this crucial time in their lives. And it reminds us that people with autism find this period of change particularly difficult, because of the nature of the condition.
Destination unknown? Transition to adulthood for people with autism spectrum disorder
A PhD student in Special Educational Needs at the University of the West of Scotland is seeking volunteer service providers, service users and their families for a research project into the process of transition into adulthood for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
This study is designed to explore the experiences of becoming an adult for higher ability people with autism or Asperger syndrome, from two age ranges of 16+ and 25+, and people who are closest to them (i.e. parents/carers/relatives/friends/key service providers etc).
The project aims to answer the following questions:
How do young people with ASD perceive the transition to adulthood?
How do they conceptualise this process?
What are their experiences of moving into this stage of life?
What approaches have been advocated to facilitate this transition?
How effective have these approaches been?
What are service providers’ perceptions of the process?
What are service providers’ views of factors that would help young adults with ASD in the transition to adulthood?
What are the implications for educational and social policy and practice in relation to the transition of young individuals with ASD into adulthood?
What possible interventions could be introduced to help young people with ASD in their transition to adulthood?
What are possible areas for future research?
Autism and Adulthood: Finding Support Systems
Autism is a serious developmental disorder, which shows up during the first three years of a child’s life. While much of the attention has been shifted towards caring for autistic children, a lot still needs to be done to effectively help these kids transition into young adults. Many children who have autism have not been able to graduate from high school at 17 or 18 years olds, unlike their other normally-functioning peers. In the US, most autistic teenagers remain in high school until they’re 21 years old, and continue to require the services set forth in an Individualized Education Plan, or IEP. Are the support systems all ready in place to help autistic adults transition properly into college and work?
Asperger Syndrome: making the transition into adulthood.
Parents who have children with Asperger Syndrome often worry about life after school. They worry, just as any other parent does about college, living independently, finding a job, and having relationships. Parents of children with Asperger Syndrome should think about this transition earlier than other parents. Parents should be working with their children to become independent and to strengthen their areas of interests.
What does happen after the free public education is gone and they have to start earning a living or living an adult life? There are a number of situations to consider when making the transition from child to adulthood, here are a few: