Background information
Alex is a 17-year-old girl who stays with his mother. His mother thinks that he has problems sleeping and making new friends. He is currently in the 11th grade. Recently she was diagnosed with the autistic spectrum disorder. Nobody in her class has any disabilities, and therefore she spends most of her time alone. His teachers worry about her behavior, and they try as much as they can to help her socialize with her peers. When his mother learns about what he is going through, she transferred him to a new school where they offer special education to kids like him. He is placed in PEOP program where they will observe her interests, skills, life experiences and hobbies. According to is EIP it is seen that Alex does not like getting involved in any social activity, he has a problem in back and forth conversation, and does not like to make eye contact when talking to people. Alex loves Math and is currently enrolled in a statistics class. From his previous test records, it was observed that he scored straight A’s in the Math. Subjects like arts and music were the worst performed, and this is presumed to be due to his social anxiety as the subjects required a lot of interaction. On her free time, she loves reading comics and watching movies. His teachers also reported that he is goal oriented. It was observed by WISC-IV that Alex had being diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, which mainly affected his social behavior but it had not improved since middle school. It is observed that even though he has a disorder in social behavior and communication, she performs better in other areas.
Transition Assessment
After school’s spring break, Alex got a job at a publishing firm in his area. He was responsible for writing articles and bibliography. Proofreading editorial copies, researching articles and books, making sure that all publications have the correct information of authors and editors and general office work. After his three month completion, his supervisor offered him a job in the company because of the exemplary work she showed. His mother and coach encouraged him to take the job she took the task, and after some time she reported to her coach that she loved the job. However, according to findings of his disorder, it has been noted that she might be interested in the job more because she does not have to interact with people face to face (Goldstein, & Ozonoff, 2018). He has structured her routine to fit his disability. She reported that she is most anxious when she enters and leaves work. This is because the employees have a culture of greeting each other before work which makes her very uneasy. He prefers coming to work very early before others and leaving late. By doing this, he avoids any social interaction.
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Alex loves to accomplish all the tasks that have been presented to him before going home. Even though her supervisor encourages her to save the work for later, she does not like to leave ay pending tasks. He says that the best part of his work is when she saw an article that she has worked on being published. He says that she feels satisfied and fulfilled.
He has a vocational rehabilitation job coach that helps him deal with his disorder. Even though she does not like the program, then the coach helps him understand the importance of the program. His mother is afraid that the job coach spends a few hours with her, and she is worried that he might not get the most out of the program. However, the coach explains that those are the required hours that he can do according to the agreement of the agency he works at.
In the report, it was reported that he was afraid that his collogues might think that he is not a team player. He says that he had very little interaction with the team. However, the rest of the workers report that he was determined in her work, dependable and keen to detail.
It was noted that she does not communicate to his co-worker on any matter even in the case of an emergency. The boss wrote a report saying that she should be guided into communicating more with the workie mates. One of the workmates noted that they could help achieve better communication skills. His supervisor said that he could talk to the boss and help her get more part-time hours so that she could work on better communication skills and avoid social anxiety (Lord et al., 2018). He showed a lot of progress as she accepted the offer to be guided by the work mate.
Alex has shown that he is ready to learn and adapt to social crowds by accepting his workmate's offer. Therefore the teachers and his coach need to come with ways in which they will help his adjust to the new changes. One of these methods is progressive monitoring. The agency should come up with a reasonable time frame that will help them observe any changes in his behavior. Implementation and intervention is another way that they can help him adapt. They need to take advantage of natural situations that can be used as a learning moment for him. When he needs to socialize with people that moment should be taken advantage of to help him learn. His workmate, teachers’ and the job coach are responsible for ensuring that he achieves social comfort and better communication skills.
References
Goldstein, S., & Ozonoff, S. (Eds.). (2018). Assessment of autism spectrum disorder. Guilford Publications.
Lord, C., Elsabbagh, M., Baird, G., & Veenstra-Vanderweele, J. (2018). Autism spectrum disorder. The Lancet.
