February 23, 2010
Group’s ‘Hot Topics’ are About Working with Autism

By Toni Lapp

There have been times that I couldn’t picture my teen-age son Ryan maturing into a responsible adult. When he entered high school he would converse about communism and the Bolshevik revolution to strangers, he had few friends, and he was frequently the target of his peers’ jokes. Seldom did a week go by that I didn’t get the dreaded Parent@School notice apprising me of missed assignments.
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December 30, 2009
It Pays to Learn about Labor Trends

By Kate Duffy

My English 101 students stared warily at me last semester when I assigned them a rather lengthy research project about the economy and employment. A number of the students were in their 40s and first-time college students, and, frankly, they were overwhelmed, scared even.
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October 6, 2009
5 Skills for Job Seekers on the Spectrum

By Kate Duffy

People on the spectrum often resist change, even change that might be good for them. They don’t have a lot of motivation to try new things and sometimes can get stuck in patterns that aren’t particularly good for them. This is not a character flaw, just a byproduct of brain wiring and temperament.

But one thing we know about life is that change is what it’s all about. So how do you learn to adapt well enough to hold down a job or start a small business?
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ASK AN AUTISM SPECTRUM SPECIALIST

The Summer Break: A Catch-22?

By Jeanne Holverstott, M.S.

Question: It seems like summer can be full of pitfalls for my son with Asperger’s — the structure has gone away, and he’s no longer in contact with classmates. He is content to play on the computer all day, but seems to get moody more easily. Should we treat summer vacation as a long break from school-year stress, or what?  

Answer: Summer vacation presents a contradiction: Children with autism spectrum disorders thrive on structure, routine, consistency. Summer vacation throws these principles of ASD parenting and behavior management in flux.

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DEVELOPING TALENTS

Intervene, Intervene, Intervene

By Kate Duffy

A while back, Toni, the SpectrumConnection editor, asked me to write about how far parents should go to help their teens on the spectrum land a job. Since then, several of our Hot Topics parents have shared their kids’ job search stories with me, and I realized there was no easy answer to her question. For the most part, though, their stories revolved around the kids’ inability to accurately read situations, to remember instructions and to multitask to make a deadline. Looking at that list, it sounds like business as usual on the job for most of us — which is why it is so very important that our kids start learning about the world of work as soon as they can.

That’s why the short answer to Toni’s question is this: do what you need to do.

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