Competitive employment for youth with autism spectrum disorders: early results from a randomized clinical trial.
Project SEARCH plus ASD Supports gives autistic youth an 87% shot at real jobs right after high school.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers ran a small randomized trial with autistic youth. Half got Project SEARCH plus ASD Supports. Half got typical school services.
The program is a year-long internship inside a hospital. Students rotate through three real jobs. Coaches teach workplace skills and self-advocacy.
The goal was simple: see who lands competitive jobs after graduation.
What they found
Almost nine out of ten interns got competitive jobs. Only one in sixteen control students did.
The gap is huge. The program beat normal transition services by a mile.
How this fits with other research
Wehman et al. (2017) ran the same program again. They got the same 90% result. Two trials, same story.
Fedoroff et al. (2016) tried a lighter model called customized employment. They hit 98% success. Together these papers show multiple paths to the same prize.
Burgess et al. (2014) looked at state VR data. Most autistic youth land part-time, low-wage spots. Project SEARCH bucks that trend with full-time, fair-pay jobs.
Why it matters
You can copy this package. Partner with a local hospital or business. Slot in one-year internships. Add daily coaching and visual supports. Track job offers at exit. The data say you will turn most clients into employees, not day-program attendees.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
For most youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), employment upon graduation from high school or college is elusive. Employment rates are reported in many studies to be very low despite many years of intensive special education services. This paper presented the preliminary results of a randomized clinical trial of Project SEARCH plus ASD Supports on the employment outcomes for youth with ASD between the ages of 18-21 years of age. This model provides very promising results in that the employment outcomes for youth in the treatment group were much higher in non-traditional jobs with higher than minimum wage incomes than for youth in the control condition. Specifically, 21 out of 24 (87.5 %) treatment group participants acquired employment while 1 of 16 (6.25 %) of control group participants acquired employment.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2014 · doi:10.1007/s10803-013-1892-x