The Effect of Business Internships Model and Employment on Enhancing the Independence of Young Adults With Significant Impact From Autism.

Schall et al. (2020) tested a year-long internship program called Project SEARCH plus ASD Supports.

Forty-nine young adults with significant autism were split into two groups by coin flip.

The treatment group got daily job coaching, social skills groups, and three 10-week internships in a hospital.

The control group got the usual school transition services.

Everyone was tracked for how many landed paid jobs and how independent they became.

One year later, a large share of the interns had real paid jobs.

Only a large share of the control group did.

The interns also cooked, shopped, and used buses more often on their own.

Parents said their sons and daughters needed less help at home.

Bigham et al. (2013) showed that parent coaching boosts early ABA.

Carol’s team used the same coaching idea, but for job sites instead of living rooms.

Cadondon et al. (2023) tried a short 12-week career class.

It helped kids sign up for college, but it did not lead to jobs.

Carol’s full-year internships go deeper and show real paychecks.

Strydom et al. (2020) ran another 2020 RCT with adults who had both autism and ID.

They found no gain from a behavior-team program.

Carol’s study wins because it focused on young adults without ID and tied every lesson to a real job task.

If you serve teens or young adults with ASD, copy the PS+ASD recipe: long internships, daily coaching, and boss buy-in.

Start talking to local hospitals, banks, or tech firms now.

One strong year can flip a client from school to payroll.