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Leaving the Family Home: Opportunities and Obstacles for Autistic Adults
When we think about the future of individuals on the autism spectrum, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Who will help them create their weekly schedule? Where will they work? How will they connect with friends? Who will assume the daily support role once parents can no longer provide...
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Empowering Young Women with ASD to be Successful in the Workplace
Like their neurotypical peers, young women with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) truly desire to be independent. To seek her potential and independence, most women with autism need to work for money, even if it is for 15 hours a week. Women transitioning from school to adulthood need to stretch,...
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Igniting Passion. Actualizing Potential.
Picture an ember – a small glowing spark that with proper care and attention will grow into a warm, radiating fire. Now picture your spark – what gets you up in the morning, what motivates you to keep going, and how do you nurture that spark? For many of us that spark is our work, and it is...
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The Direct Care Collaborative – Two Populations in Crisis: Adults with Severe Autism and Those That Support Them
As most of us who are reading this page know, there is a paradoxical relationship between the increasing numbers of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) entering adulthood every year and the decline in available services. Indeed, the number of adults (22+) with autism is estimated at 200,000,...
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The Crisis of Incompetency
During the past several years you have undoubtedly read about what some have called an “autism crisis” or “autism Tsunami” referring to the increasingly large population of children who are diagnosed with autism that are aging to adulthood. Is this the actual “crisis” we should be...
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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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Extraordinary Ventures Creates Extraordinary Opportunities
Government is an important employer in our economy, but by far the largest source of jobs is the private sector made up of hundreds of thousands of small, medium and large businesses. But neither government nor private enterprise has done a very good job incorporating the skills and talents of...
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The Dilemma of Aging Parents with Adults with Autism Still Living at Home
In a summary of key findings from the 2015 National Autism Indicators Report, we parents now have confirmation: “Young adults with autism had the lowest rate of independent living (19%) compared to their peers with other disabilities.”1 The 2015 State of the State in Developmental Disability...
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Family and Professional Partnerships Optimize Successful Transitions to Adulthood
The Centers for Disease Control noted that from 1994 to 2005, the number of children ages 6–21 years receiving services for autism increased from 22,664 to 193,637 nationally. This explosive increase in the number of children identified with an autism spectrum disorder sounds a warning for the...
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Defining Care for High-Functioning Adults with Autism
A lost art in modern conversation (not surprisingly, as we are quite possibly the busiest society in world history) is the definition of one’s terms. To be sure, this requires time and patience; but by clarifying all foundational points, we make the rest of the conversation much easier....
