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Autism, 2.07 (V) How to Transition to Work

In this lesson we will examine the transition from school to work for people with autism. Steve Ruder discusses the role of the job coach, for both people on the autism spectrum and those that surround them in the workplace. Then you will meet Robert Levy, as he describes his first-hand experience making the transition to independent living, and then talks about the work that he does at the UC Davis Mind Institute. Here, Steve Ruder, job coach and transition specialist, talks about finding work for people with Autism. » One of the areas I think for people who are on the spectrum, in terms of going into either education or employment, is that for a lot of disabilities people recognize the types of supports that people with disability need. People who have hearing impairments or visual impairments or ambulatory impairments. We understand how you support people with those kinds of disability. But people who are on the spectrum, they often times have needs and supports that they need that are a little bit more unusual for the way that we currently support people. One of the roles of a job coach is, of course, to help people with disabilities learn the tasks that are involved in the job. But the other part of that role of the job coach is to help the people who are surrounding the individual, the supervisors and the coworkers, with knowing the ways that they can help the person who's on the spectrum be successful. One of the challenges for people who are on the spectrum to find employment is to really first of all find out what they're good at doing. And I encourage people to spend time volunteering with different types of locations and different types of work. And that gives people a great opportunity to be learning different types of skills, to be practicing real life situations with supervisors and coworkers. And it's just a wonderful opportunity for people to develop those types of understandings of what happens in a workplace and how they fit into that. Robert started out at the Mind Institute as a volunteer and he had the opportunity to learn a variety of different tasks. Some of the tasks were things that worked out really well for him and he's continued to do it now that he's been hired as an employee, and some of the tasks that we introduced to him while he was a volunteer, we found that they really weren't suited to his abilities. So that opportunity to use the volunteer time to really find the best kinds of things that he could do, and match that with whether or not the job that we had that was available at the Mind Institute, if he could truly do those tasks. It was a wonderful opportunity for him to learn the task and for the staff at the Mind Institute to evaluate whether or not his abilities really matched what they were looking for in an employee. » In these next two videos, we will meet Robert Levy, a staff at the Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities at the Mind Institute, and a self-advocate and mentor. Robert will share his experiences in gaining independence and entering the world of work. » When I lived on my own in the California Conservation Corp, I learned tthat yeah, my parents were at home and I had to learn to get up in the morning and do my normal routine and be ready on time for work. And done the work, then came home, go back, and do it all over again the next morning. And still live with roommates in the dorm. So that's what I did the whole year. And even though I was home on weekends visiting my folks, it was part of being independent on your own. When I was in the California Conservation Corp, my mistakes were that I had pretty severe bad tempers and I was talking back and mouthing back at my supervisors. And back then I didn't realize that I shouldn't have done that because I was 20 years old, and I was too young to understand adult responsibilities. And I was one of the pioneers. Even though I came back two months later to graduate and finish my one year contract. And that was one of my mistakes. But I did learn to live on my own, with roommates. People who don't have disabilities, they don't have to work as hard as me. But the people with disabilities, they have a little bit more challenged than the people that don't have disabilities. I help out by telling out the evals for whatever workshop conferences we do. I do copies for the staff and whatever needs to be done. I'm also involved with the newsletter for Statewide Self Advocacy Network. I'm a chairman of the newsletter committee for that group and that we're also just handed out our first newsletter for Statewide Self Advocacy Network, and we are getting ready to get a second one out. I also do presentations at different meetings and conferences. I don't have a dream job yet, but I like to mentor people that need help. Like I'm mentoring a person here that is almost 20 and I help him out when he needs help. And like just last month, I mean, this was past early in the month of March. I just helped somebody gets started at the Statewide Self Advocacy Network, because he just had his first meeting, and he's only 27 years old.


In this lesson we will examine the transition from school to work for people with autism. Steve Ruder discusses the role of the job coach, for both people on the autism spectrum and those that surround them in the workplace. Then you will meet Robert Levy, as he describes his first-hand experience making the transition to independent living, and then talks about the work that he does at the UC Davis Mind Institute. Here, Steve Ruder, job coach and transition specialist, talks about finding work for people with Autism. » One of the areas I think for people who are on the spectrum, in terms of going into either education or employment, is that for a lot of disabilities people recognize the types of supports that people with disability need. People who have hearing impairments or visual impairments or ambulatory impairments. We understand how you support people with those kinds of disability. But people who are on the spectrum, they often times have needs and supports that they need that are a little bit more unusual for the way that we currently support people. One of the roles of a job coach is, of course, to help people with disabilities learn the tasks that are involved in the job. But the other part of that role of the job coach is to help the people who are surrounding the individual, the supervisors and the coworkers, with knowing the ways that they can help the person who's on the spectrum be successful. One of the challenges for people who are on the spectrum to find employment is to really first of all find out what they're good at doing. And I encourage people to spend time volunteering with different types of locations and different types of work. And that gives people a great opportunity to be learning different types of skills, to be practicing real life situations with supervisors and coworkers. And it's just a wonderful opportunity for people to develop those types of understandings of what happens in a workplace and how they fit into that. Robert started out at the Mind Institute as a volunteer and he had the opportunity to learn a variety of different tasks. Some of the tasks were things that worked out really well for him and he's continued to do it now that he's been hired as an employee, and some of the tasks that we introduced to him while he was a volunteer, we found that they really weren't suited to his abilities. So that opportunity to use the volunteer time to really find the best kinds of things that he could do, and match that with whether or not the job that we had that was available at the Mind Institute, if he could truly do those tasks. It was a wonderful opportunity for him to learn the task and for the staff at the Mind Institute to evaluate whether or not his abilities really matched what they were looking for in an employee. » In these next two videos, we will meet Robert Levy, a staff at the Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities at the Mind Institute, and a self-advocate and mentor. Robert will share his experiences in gaining independence and entering the world of work. » When I lived on my own in the California Conservation Corp, I learned tthat yeah, my parents were at home and I had to learn to get up in the morning and do my normal routine and be ready on time for work. And done the work, then came home, go back, and do it all over again the next morning. And still live with roommates in the dorm. So that's what I did the whole year. And even though I was home on weekends visiting my folks, it was part of being independent on your own. When I was in the California Conservation Corp, my mistakes were that I had pretty severe bad tempers and I was talking back and mouthing back at my supervisors. And back then I didn't realize that I shouldn't have done that because I was 20 years old, and I was too young to understand adult responsibilities. And I was one of the pioneers. Even though I came back two months later to graduate and finish my one year contract. And that was one of my mistakes. But I did learn to live on my own, with roommates. People who don't have disabilities, they don't have to work as hard as me. But the people with disabilities, they have a little bit more challenged than the people that don't have disabilities. I help out by telling out the evals for whatever workshop conferences we do. I do copies for the staff and whatever needs to be done. I'm also involved with the newsletter for Statewide Self Advocacy Network. I'm a chairman of the newsletter committee for that group and that we're also just handed out our first newsletter for Statewide Self Advocacy Network, and we are getting ready to get a second one out. I also do presentations at different meetings and conferences. I don't have a dream job yet, but I like to mentor people that need help. Like I'm mentoring a person here that is almost 20 and I help him out when he needs help. And like just last month, I mean, this was past early in the month of March. I just helped somebody gets started at the Statewide Self Advocacy Network, because he just had his first meeting, and he's only 27 years old.