PMID- 26855048 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20170110 LR - 20170111 IS - 1873-3379 (Electronic) IS - 0891-4222 (Linking) VI - 53-54 DP - 2016 Jun-Jul TI - Employment for adults with autism spectrum disorders: A retrospective review of a customized employment approach. PG - 61-72 LID - S0891-4222(16)30015-4 [pii] LID - 10.1016/j.ridd.2016.01.015 [doi] AB - Over the past few decades, there has been an increase in prevalence of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and those children are now becoming young adults in need of competitive integrated employment (CIE). Customized employment (CE) is one pathway to employment that has been successful for other individuals with developmental disabilities (DD), though research has been very limited on the effectiveness with individuals with ASD. This paper provides a retrospective review of 64 individuals with ASD who came to our program from 2009 to 2014 for supported employment services as referred by the state vocational rehabilitation services agency. Employment specialists engaged in situational assessment, discovery, job development, customized job descriptions, on-site training and support, positive behavioral supports, and job retention techniques. The employment specialists were responsible for tracking their actual time spent working directly with or for the jobseeker with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). All vocational rehabilitation clients with ASD served during this time successfully secured CIE, and maintained their employment with ongoing supports, with intensity of support time decreasing over time. The majority (63/64, 98.4%) of individuals successfully secured CIE through the use of supported employment, in 72 unique employment positions. Of the majority of the individuals who secured employment, 77% (50) individuals indicated that they had never worked before and additional 18% (12) reported having short intermittent histories of employment. Despite this lack of employment experience, in all cases the jobseeker directed the job search and ultimately the job selection. CI - Copyright (c) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. FAU - Wehman, Paul AU - Wehman P AD - Virginia Commonwealth University, Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, 1314 West Main Street, Richmond, VA 23284, USA. Electronic address: pwehman@vcu.org. FAU - Brooke, Valerie AU - Brooke V AD - Virginia Commonwealth University, Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, 1314 West Main Street, Richmond, VA 23284, USA. Electronic address: vbrooke@vcu.edu. FAU - Brooke, Alissa Molinelli AU - Brooke AM AD - Virginia Commonwealth University, Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, 1314 West Main Street, Richmond, VA 23284, USA. Electronic address: admolinelli@vcu.edu. FAU - Ham, Whitney AU - Ham W AD - Virginia Commonwealth University, Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, 1314 West Main Street, Richmond, VA 23284, USA. Electronic address: hamwa@vcu.edu. FAU - Schall, Carol AU - Schall C AD - Virginia Commonwealth University, Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, 1314 West Main Street, Richmond, VA 23284, USA. Electronic address: cmschall@vcu.edu. FAU - McDonough, Jennifer AU - McDonough J AD - Virginia Commonwealth University, Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, 1314 West Main Street, Richmond, VA 23284, USA. Electronic address: jltodd@vcu.edu. FAU - Lau, Stephanie AU - Lau S AD - Virginia Commonwealth University, Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, 1314 West Main Street, Richmond, VA 23284, USA. Electronic address: sjlau@vcu.edu. FAU - Seward, Hannah AU - Seward H AD - Virginia Commonwealth University, Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, 1314 West Main Street, Richmond, VA 23284, USA. Electronic address: sewardhe@vcu.edu. FAU - Avellone, Lauren AU - Avellone L AD - Virginia Commonwealth University, Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, 1314 West Main Street, Richmond, VA 23284, USA. Electronic address: leavellone@vcu.edu. LA - eng PT - Journal Article PT - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't PT - Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. DEP - 20160206 PL - United States TA - Res Dev Disabil JT - Research in developmental disabilities JID - 8709782 SB - IM MH - Adult MH - Autism Spectrum Disorder/*rehabilitation MH - Employment MH - *Employment, Supported MH - Female MH - Humans MH - Inservice Training MH - Male MH - Middle Aged MH - *Rehabilitation, Vocational MH - Retrospective Studies MH - Young Adult OTO - NOTNLM OT - Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) OT - Competitive integrated employment (CIE) OT - Customized employment (CE) OT - Employment specialists OT - Support services OT - Supported employment (SE) OT - Transition EDAT- 2016/02/09 06:00 MHDA- 2017/01/11 06:00 CRDT- 2016/02/09 06:00 PHST- 2015/05/21 00:00 [received] PHST- 2016/01/14 00:00 [revised] PHST- 2016/01/21 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2016/02/09 06:00 [entrez] PHST- 2016/02/09 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2017/01/11 06:00 [medline] AID - S0891-4222(16)30015-4 [pii] AID - 10.1016/j.ridd.2016.01.015 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - Res Dev Disabil. 2016 Jun-Jul;53-54:61-72. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2016.01.015. Epub 2016 Feb 6.