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Employment and Post-Secondary Educational Activities for Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders During the Transition to Adulthood

  • Julie Lounds Taylor
  • Marsha Mailick Seltzer
Original Paper
First Online:

Abstract

This report describes the post-high school educational and occupational activities for 66 young adults with autism spectrum disorders who had recently exited the secondary school system. Analyses indicated low rates of employment in the community, with the majority of young adults (56%) spending time in sheltered workshops or day activity centers. Young adults with ASD without an intellectual disability were three times more likely to have no daytime activities compared to adults with ASD who had an intellectual disability. Differences in behavioral functioning were observed by employment/day activity group. Our findings suggest that the current service system may be inadequate to accommodate the needs of youths with ASD who do not have intellectual disabilities during the transition to adulthood.

Keywords

Transition to adulthood Employment Post-secondary education Autism spectrum disorders 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This project was supported by the Marino Autism Research Institute (J.L. Taylor, PI), the National Institute on Aging (R01 AG08768, M.M. Seltzer, PI) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P30 HD15052, E.M. Dykens, PI; P30 HD03352, M.M. Seltzer, PI).

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  • Julie Lounds Taylor
    • 1
    • 2
  • Marsha Mailick Seltzer
    • 3
  1. 1.Vanderbilt Kennedy CenterNashvilleUSA
  2. 2.Department of PediatricsVanderbilt University School of Medicine and the Monroe Carrell Jr. Children’s Hospital at VanderbiltNashvilleUSA
  3. 3.Waisman CenterUniversity of Wisconsin-MadisonMadisonUSA

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