JobTips: An Employment Preparation Program for Adolescents and Young Adults with

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Autism is a complex neurological disorder that affects 1.5 million individuals in this country. While services for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are supported by federal mandates, as these children transition into adulthood and independent living, the need to become self supporting becomes critical both for the individual and for society. The cost to support individuals with ASD, an estimated $35 billion yearly in America, has major and long term impact on the health services and financial needs of every community. The difficulties encountered by adults with autism in work environments are well documented and have resulted in calls to examine more effective ways of providing supports. JobTips is an employment program that uses novel combinations of videos, learning software, and virtual world practice to help adolescents and young adults with ASD understand the requirements and settings for different jobs, learn how to apply and interview for a job, and master the social interactions necessary to maintain employment. JobTips combines our technical expertise with two premier autism research centers, the TEACCH program (Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication-handicapped Children) in the Department of Psychiatry at the University Of North Carolina School Of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC and the Marcus Autism Center (MAC) at Emory University, Atlanta, GA. TEACCH and MAC will be involved in all components of JobTips, from initial program design through testing. Program efficacy will be established with adolescents and young adults who have been diagnosed with ASD through pre/post assessment of employment skills learned and through transference of new skills to real world situations based on two standard accepted measurement scales. The final program will be delivered free over the Internet for use by anyone without restriction, providing a compelling and effective service to individuals with autism and creating employment support networks for communities worldwide. This project would provide a motivating and effective new employment intervention program called JobTips to help adolescents and young adults with autism evaluate job requirements and learn appropriate skills necessary to obtain and maintain employment. Internet delivery will enhance and extend support services to the home, school, and remote locations. In addition to contributing an innovative intervention tool, the research conducted through this project will advance scientific knowledge regarding the use of multimedia tools for treatment in social and learning disorders and promote greater understanding of behavior intervention strategies for individuals with autism.