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The Soft Skills – A Call to Remember the (Not so Easy) Steps to Success
As we prepare our students for transitions from school to work, we put much emphasis on academics and trade skills. However, more and more, the employers are putting an emphasis on hiring individuals with the right soft skill set. For our students to be successful, we need to assist them in making...
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Parent and Adolescent Outcomes Following Participation in the PEERS© Program
As youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) navigate the complex social world of adolescence, they frequently have difficulty forming and maintaining friendships. Past research indicates that adolescents with ASD report lower quality friendships than their typically-developing peers (Bauminger...
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Walking the Tightrope: Promoting Success in the Adolescent with ASD
It is tough being an adolescent. Adolescence is a time fraught with changes at many levels. Physically, the body is growing and changing, evolving from the body of a child to an adult, and becoming physiologically capable of bearing children. There is a tremendous surge of hormones that allow for...
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Developing Independence: Teaching Goal Setting Skills to Adolescents on the Autism Spectrum
Research conducted amongst the broader population has reported that goal setting for independence is a teachable and effective support strategy, yet it is one that remains under-utilized by the Autism community. The ability to live a meaningful life, with as little reliance on others as...
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Facilitating Plugged In: Helping Teens with ASD Navigate Life with Technology
Technology use is ubiquitous among today’s youth (Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010). This probably does not come as a surprise because it seems that kids and their gadgets are everywhere. The current generation of youth has even been referred to as the iGeneration or the app generation. From...
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Support of Coaching to Develop Key Skills that Facilitate Independent Living
Independent living skills, or life skills, are important tools that are needed in order to successfully navigate the world. In the 1990’s, a surge of children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and are now approaching adulthood (VanBergeijk, E., Klin, A. & Volkmar, F....
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Using Media as an Effective Tool to Teach Social Skills to Adolescents and Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Media is a powerful educational tool for adolescents and young adults in general; however, for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) it provides a unique opportunity to learn social skills. Popular television shows, movies, YouTube clips, and other social media sites are a vehicle to...
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PEERS: A Parent-Supported Evidence Based Social Skills Intervention for Adolescents with ASD
Martin is a 14-year-old boy who has recently starting expressing increased levels of anxiety, particularly about his impending transition into high school starting this fall. Martin was diagnosed with ASD as a younger child and finding a place among his peers has always been an obstacle. Although...
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Treating the Adolescent with ASD: The Quest To Establish Selfhood
In our society, adolescence is thought of as a time of self-discovery and identity formation. It is a time when the individual is not quite a child anymore, but is certainly not an adult; it is the transitionary period between the two. During the span of roughly seven to ten years, or in some cases...
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Developing Self-Reflection and Resilience in Adolescents with Asperger’s Syndrome and High Functioning Autism
Some key ingredients to success as an adult in college or in work are: self-awareness, self-reflection, stress management, social competence, and resilience. This is true for everyone with and without disability. It would be fabulous if we could eliminate stress from all our lives; however stress...
