Strategies to Implement a Vocation Program for Students with Autism

                “Among youth with ASD, 76 percent of teenagers over the age of sixteen have never applied for a job and 79 percent of adults with ASD continue to live at home” (Barnett, Crippen, 2015). This statistic is not only shocking, but it is also upsetting.  Disability or not, everyone deserves to be able to get a decent job that pays enough to support themselves.  The article I chose for this blog is about a high school that incorporated vocational skills to teach students with ASD how to work in the restaurant industry. 

                I will begin this blog with a brief summary of the article.  The author started this article with eight research based steps that created a high quality vocational program for students with ASD.  The first step is to observe other programs and collaborate with district teacher. 

The author’s research found that the first step in the design of a vocational program is to locate and observe other classrooms in the area and take into account the methods and strategies they employ to promote vocational instruction and job skills among their students with disabilities.

                The next step in the article is to align the program with core academic state standards.  In order for a vocational program to be in compliance with federal laws, the program must align to Common Core Standards. 

“For example, high school language arts common core standards require students to be able to understand the meaning of words (including technical text) from a variety of sources to solve a problem.  The comprehension of informational text and the corresponding skills that the standard requires are demonstrated by the students in a vocational restaurant setting (e.g., comprehending menus, using order forms), a copy center (e.g., retrieving meaning from order forms and following the process to complete the order) or when delivering mail (e.g., comprehending names on the envelopes, navigating maps of the campus in order to deliver).    

The third step in the program is to involve the students in the planning process in a meaningful way.  To get students engaged in the vocational program, the program must consider the students’ prefaces and interests” (Barnett, Crippen, 2015). 

The authors’ research found, incorporating meaningful participation in the vocational programs by securing student input in job choices, services offered, and outcome-related rewards may increase student “buy-in.”  This “buy-in” will consequently increase student motivation and engagement, which are related to improved achievement.

                The fourth step in the program is to connect the program to real-world experiences.  The authors found that in order for the program to be successful, the job skills should be taught in a realistic vocational setting.  “A critical step in a vocational training program is to give students with ASD and ID the opportunity to gain experience that will logically lead to jobs after high school in a variety of settings” (Barnett, Crippen, 2015).  The fifth step in the program is to create training materials and pre-vocational tasks that mimic real-world processes.  “For students with ASD and other developmental disabilities, visual supports have been found to be particularly helpful” (Barnett, Crippen, 2015).  In this particular vocational program, the teachers added pictures and adaptive writing materials to help students who had difficulty in writing applications.  The sixth step in the program was to use research-based training methods. 

“According to Barnett and Crippen, for students with significant disabilities at the transition stage, it is critical that these research-based approaches be applied to the development of their vocational skills in a functionally relevant way.  Teachers must investigate evidence-based and scientifically validated practices and apply these in their training programs.  For example, the students used social scripts to train the servers in a restaurant setting.  The kitchen staff was trained using video models, and the video model could be paused, rewound, and fast-forwarded if necessary for review and reinforcement” (Barnett, Crippen, 2015).

                The seventh step in the program is to integrate the program within the school community.  One of the goals of vocational programs should be to encourage meaningful interactions between the students and the staff in self-contained classrooms as well as, the rest of the school community. 

The authors’ research suggests that students in self-contained settings often become accustomed to communicating only with other students and staff in their own classroom.  By expanding the program to personnel outside of the self-contained setting, atypical school communication was encouraged and expansion of students’ language use and abilities was facilitated.  Furthermore, school-wide recognition of the students’ efforts creates a sense of responsibility and identification that increases the students’ sense of self-worth and self-esteem. 

                The final step is to use authentic “real-world” reinforcement.  People stay at jobs because they have a sense of pride and purpose for their work and the satisfaction should be applied to vocation training as well.  “Naturally occurring reinforcers such as social praise from a job well done can increase generalization of learned skills.” (Barnett, Crippen, 2015)  Following these steps to create a vocational program is how one high school was able to help students with ASD be more successful in the employment process. 

                Next, I will talk about my experiences with vocational programs and useful strategies that I found from this research.  The high school I work at has a work program for the special education students.  The program at my school works similar to the program in this article.  However, the program in the article seemed to have more hands on and real work materials such as the model restaurant.  I thought the model and the real kitchen were excellent training tools, I wish that my school could have a classroom like the one in the article.  Unfortunately, most public schools do not have the funding to make vocational programs like this possible.  I am a firm believer in vocational studies for general education and special education.  To explain, classes like auto shop and home economics make learning engaging and school more meaningful.  Cutting vocational classes out of the curriculum to make room for more math and reading is counterproductive.  Mechanics need to read and research repair manuals to diagnose cars, chefs need to use measuring skills to add ingredients in recipes, and salespeople need to communicate properly.  Math and reading skills lend themselves to vocational programs.  The EBD students I work with may not always be “college bound”, however, the vocational programs we have teach them how to fill out an application correctly, or gain entry level employment in a trade. 

                Next, I will critique this article and discuss the useful strategies I read.  Overall, I thought this article was informative and it contained good strategies and visuals.  In this article, there were several examples of how to modify job applications with visuals for students with ASD.  The article also gave examples of social scripts and modified menus.  The only criticism I have for this article is I would have liked to have read about more of the success rate of their students.  For instance, how many students found better jobs after this training versus before the program was created?  Also, the authors explained the steps of the program vastly, but they could’ve have described the strategies and modifications made for the student with ASD more thoroughly. 

                In conclusion, vocational programs promote learning, social skills, and life skills.  I believe that more schools need to focus on “real-world” vocational studies, especially schools that only accommodate special education students.        

Hart Barnett, J. E., & Crippen, R. (2014). Eight Steps to School-Based Employment Training for     Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disability. Physical Disabilities:             Education And Related Services, 33(2), 1-15.