Effects of a problem‐solving strategy on the independent completion of vocational tasks by adolescents with autism spectrum disorder
A simple written checklist lets teens with autism handle on-the-job problems without adult help.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Four high-school students with autism learned to finish office jobs on their own.
They got a short written checklist that told them what to do if something went wrong.
The team watched the teens across several work tasks and counted how often they solved problems without help.
What they found
After the checklist was added, every teen fixed problems like missing supplies by themselves.
The skill carried over to brand-new tasks that were not in training.
How this fits with other research
Koyama et al. (2011) looked at 23 earlier studies and found the same thing: written schedules boost independence for people with autism.
Sances et al. (2019) showed the same tool works for an adult doing beekeeping, so the idea stretches past teens.
Campanaro et al. (2021) reviewed vocational papers and saw mostly video tools; this study adds a cheaper paper option that needs no camera.
Why it matters
You can hand a teen a short written checklist and watch them finish a job even when things go sideways. No extra staff, no tech, just paper. Try it next time you set up a vocational task.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Write a three-step ‘what-if’ box at the bottom of the task sheet and teach the learner to read it when stuck.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have few employment opportunities and a lower job quality than individuals of typical development. Social deficits and lack of independence may contribute to underemployment and unemployment of individuals with ASD. The ability to solve problems might ameliorate some of these barriers. We taught four adolescents with ASD a problem-solving strategy (i.e., use of a textual activity schedule) to assist with independent completion of vocational tasks in the face of three types of problems (e.g., missing or broken items) and nonproblem situations. Following introduction of the problem-solving strategy, all four participants independently completed the tasks when a problem was presented and responding generalized to untaught vocational tasks.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2020 · doi:10.1002/jaba.558