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9 A Training Curriculum for Employment Professionals Supporting Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Mega Center (Pheasant Run Resort and Conference Center)
The presenters will display a new curriculum they developed for use in training employment support professionals to meet the individualized needs of persons with autism spectrum disorders. The curriculum provides employment specialists with general knowledge about autism and information on sensory, behavior, social, and communication differences that should be considered as part of both the assessment and job development process. Topics include: Sensory Processing; Routine, Structure and Predictability; Movement Differences; Communication; Social Interaction; Assessment and Job Development.
In collaboration with the New England Rehabilitation Continuing Education Program, the presenters developed a curriculum for use in training employment support professionals to support individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The presenters developed the curriculum with the recognition that ASD exists on a spectrum and that those with ASD are a very heterogeneous population. They also emphasized throughout the curriculum that each person with an ASD is unique and that employment supports need to be individualized. In fact, they introduced the curriculum with Stephen Shore's quote: “If you have met one person with autism you have met one person with autism.” The presenters conducted an extensive review of the literature on employment supports for individuals with ASD and on best practices in customized employment supports. After reviewing the literature they developed a wide range of interactive activities to be used in training employment support professionals. Most of the activities were designed to help employment support professionals determine the questions they need to ask about an individual with ASD rather than to simply implement autism specific employment strategies. The curriculum was field tested in trainings that were conducted in Maine and Massachusetts. Revisions were made to the curriculum based on the feedback received from those field tests. Among the resulting changes were a change in the order of the modules and inclusion of more interactive activities in some of the modules. The curriculum is divided into seven modules including: An Introduction to ASD and Employment, Sensory Issues, Need for Structure and Predictability, Communication Differences, Social Interaction Differences, Movement Differences, and Job Development and Assessment. The curriculum contains directions for conducting training activities, summary information for each module, Powerpoint presentations, handouts and references that trainers or participants can access for additional information. The presenters will have a hard copy of the curriculum at their poster session. They will also have copies of the curriculum outline, references and an article by Alan Kurtz and Melanie Jordan published by the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts that summarizes the content of the curriculum. In addition a poster will be displayed with an outline of the curriculum as well as a list of questions that employment specialist should ask when they begin developing individualized supports for persons with ASD. The presenters will be available at the poster session to discuss both the content of the curriculum, its development and their experiences delivering the training based on the curriculum.