-
Essay / The effectiveness of promoting employment for people with autism and intellectual disabilities
It is commonly accepted that young adults with autism and intellectual disabilities (ID) struggle to find and maintain successful employment. Although a high percentage of high school students with autism and ID strive to obtain paid employment after high school, only about half of these individuals ultimately find employment. People with autism and ID who find employment typically face a number of challenges, including low pay for lower-level work, social struggles, and financial difficulties. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Gilson and Carter note that there is an increase in postsecondary education (PSE) programs available to advance the employment of people with autism and ID through career coaching. and training, particularly the academic and professional training of college students. Such programs, according to Gilson and Carter, include job shadowing, classes, and internship and networking opportunities to promote professional skills and social interactions between the individual and their employers and colleagues. Gilson and Carter describe the use of professional coaching strategies, such as task analysis, prompting, fading in, verbal instructions, and demonstrations to teach professional skills to people with autism and ID. However, Gilson and Carter note that another important element is the role of a job coach in teaching individuals to adapt socially and develop interpersonal skills in the work environment. One of the challenges highlighted by the authors is that the close proximity of a job coach to their student can negatively impact the individual's ability to integrate and form interpersonal relationships. Although the authors discuss the importance of the job coach in helping the student and providing support, they emphasize that eventually the supports will have to fade away and at that point it is important that the job coach is able to reduce proximity to the learner while still being able to give effective feedback. In other words, how can professional coaches effectively provide instruction and feedback to people with autism and ID while providing more distance or closer proximity to the learner in order to increase the learner's independence? individual and offer them greater opportunities for social integration in their work environment? Covert audio coaching (CAC) is described in this study as an instrument that allows the coach to give audio cues and feedback, discreetly and instantly to students via an in-ear device and which also allows greater proximity between the learner and the learner. job coach. Gilson and Carter note that several studies have reported it to be an effective method for improving the job skills of people with autism and ID, but no previous studies have been done on using CAC to improve social skills. The authors investigated whether students with autism or ID would increase their social interactions in their work environment through the use of the social coaching method and whether this increase would be the result of an increase or a reduction in interaction with the job coach. The authors also wanted to know whether individuals would maintain engagement in task-related behaviors while proximity.