The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

Do2learn.com/JobTIPS is a free, web-based intervention funded by the National Institute of Mental Health that augments conventional training methods with multimedia compensation techniques to address unique job skill deficits identified in individuals with ASD. JobTIPS integrates videos, images, voice, and text content, delivered via computer and hand-held devices, to define appropriate jobs, segment employment situations into discreet actions and behaviors, and explain reasons behind behavioral and social exchanges to promote Theory of Mind. The difficulties encountered by individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in work environments are well documented and have resulted in calls to examine more effective ways of providing supports (Lattimore, et al., 2006).  With an estimated 500% increase over the last decade in incidence (CDC, 2009), individuals with autism often experience long treatment delays or a lack of trained educators, job coaches, and therapists to implement interventions, particularly when these individuals are located in geographically remote areas and underserved, poorer, communities.  The reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) mandates that schools provide services designed to improve the academic and functional achievement of the student with a disability to promote the student’s successful transition from school to post-school activities, including postsecondary education, vocational education, and integrated employment.  The challenge is to develop an effective and comprehensive job skills program that explicitly addresses the deficits experienced by many individuals with ASD.  These deficits typically emerge in the following areas:  1) Determining interests and evaluating how interests and abilities align with certain vocations, 2) Understanding and appropriately responding to the environmental demands inherent within different jobs, 3)  Knowing how to find and apply for jobs,  4)  Displaying appropriate verbal and non-verbal responses in job interview contexts, 5) Developing and using strategies to sustain productivity in the workplace, and 6) Most importantly, mastering the socialization and coping skills necessary to maintain employment. 

     Our program called JobTIPS responds to this challenge.  Do2learn.com/JobTIPS is a free, web-based intervention funded by the National Institute of Mental Health that augments conventional training and assimilation instruction therapy methods with multimedia compensation techniques to address unique job skill deficits identified in individuals with ASD.  JobTIPS integrates videos, images, voice, and text content, delivered via computer and hand-held devices, to define appropriate jobs, segment employment situations into discreet actions and behaviors, and explain reasons behind behavioral and social exchanges to promote Theory of Mind.   The purpose of JobTIPS is two-fold:  1)  It is designed for direct use by individuals with autism who need explicit guidance and instruction in navigating the employment process, and 2)  It provides a curricular scope and sequence that teachers, family members, clinicians, and job coaches might implement in 1:1 or group-oriented contexts.  To support these objectives, JobTIPS also provides a free library containing approximately 180 modeling videos, and over 100 free printables including worksheets, graphic organizers, quizzes, cue cards, informal assessments, key points summary cards, coping strategies, role-play scripts, and visual schedules. 

     The JobTIPS website is organized into five primary domains:  Determining Interests, Finding a Job, Getting a Job, Keeping a Job, and School and Community Support.  These domains contain concrete examples of situations that arise, explanations of the social and behavioral “rules” that govern various exchanges, task-analyzed target behaviors to promote adherence to these rules, and the rationale behind each depicted response to enhance “buy-in” and perspective-taking skills.   Each subsection contains videos to define and demonstrate target behaviors, embedded icons to support text comprehension, numerous printables to facilitate practice and retention, and games and quizzes to promote interactivity.  

     First, the “Determining Interests” section is designed to assist users in identifying potential vocations that align with their interests, strengths, and social competence levels via interaction with the following components:

• Informal social skills assessments
• Environmental demands rating scales
• Interests quiz
• In-depth descriptions and videos of 46 different vocations

Next, the “Finding a Job” section describes and segments each step in the job-search process via interaction with the following components: 

• Networking
• Conducting online searches for job openings
• Making connections at job fairs
• Conducting door to door searches

The “Getting a Job” section includes practical, concrete examples and usable templates for resumes, cover letters, and job applications.  This section explains the rationale behind and task-analyzes each step in the process of obtaining employment via interaction with the following components:

• Creating a resume and writing cover letters
• Identifying and asking for references

• Finding and completing job applications

• Accurately interpreting and successfully responding to questions on pre-employment screening assessments

• Preparing for job interviews and responding to the explicit demands and subtle nuances within job interviews 

• Disclosing a disability to the employer 

The “Keeping a Job” section is the most comprehensive domain as it addresses the myriad of challenges that individuals with autism often encounter on the job.  This section defines and explains the written and unwritten rules that underlie social and behavioral responses in the workplace via interaction with a number of topics, including: 

• Grooming and dressing
• Following instructions and accepting feedback
• Tolerating potential stressors such as interruptions and changes in routines and procedures
• Appropriately displaying and responding to verbal and non-verbal cues in socialization contexts
• Being a “team player” and developing friendships in the workplace
• Discriminating between public and private behaviors
• Interfacing with customers
• Identifying and using effective coping strategies to manage stress, frustration, and anxiety
• Developing time-management and organizational strategies
• Managing downtime and breaks
• Responding to bullying and workplace harassment
• Understanding legal rights to promote self-advocacy skills and arrange workplace accommodations

Finally, the “School and Community Support” section is geared towards educators, family members, transition coordinators, job coaches, and clinicians who seek to provide quality transition programming in classroom and community-based contexts.  This section addresses such topics as:

• Aligning Individualized Education Program  (I.E.P.) objectives with relevant and frequent instructional opportunities
• Developing Community-Based Vocational Training programs within the schools
• Providing quality Vocational Rehabilitation services
• Establishing and maintaining interagency collaboration
• Recognizing the roles of key stakeholders:  Students, parents, teachers, transition coordinators, adult service providers, job coaches, and employers
• Building alliances with businesses

This section of the website also contains an extensive “instructional toolbox” that provides such resources as JobTIPS transition assessments, sample I.E.P. goals, an array of lesson plans targeting employment skills, employment vocabulary and work-related idioms “dictionaries,” worksheets and graphic organizers, sample data collection systems, printable role-play card sets, environmental arrangement strategies to increase productivity and independence in the workplace, and instructional strategies to enhance socialization, coping, and self-advocacy skills.  Videos are also used to support content relating to instructional strategies and implementation of lesson plans in 1:1 and group-oriented contexts. 

Throughout the presentation, participants will be exposed to various components within the five domains of the JobTIPS website.  The objectives of this session are as follows: 

• Introduce this free website to individuals with high-functioning autism as a vehicle for comprehensive and effective self-instruction on finding, getting, and keeping a job. 
• Provide a sense of the curricular scope and sequence for targeting essential job skills, as exemplified by the JobTIPS website.
• Identify key elements to effective job skill instruction for individuals with autism:  Describing rules that govern social and behavioral responses within specific contexts, segmenting these responses into their discrete parts, providing the rationale behind these responses, and creating practice opportunities in simulated and real job contexts.
• Identify ways to incorporate multimedia formats such as JobTIPS into home-based, classroom, community-based, and clinical settings.

 

Learning Objectives: