Mobile devices may help autistic adults build work skills
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Cognition, behavior and communication challenges make it difficult for members of the ASD community to find and retain jobs, and only 15 percent have some form of paid work.
“Strategies that provide enlightened workplace supports are clearly needed in order to help people with ASD find useful work and perform successfully on the job,” said the study’s lead investigator, Tony Gentry, PhD, of the department of occupational therapy at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
Throughout the course of a four-year randomized trial, there were multiple instances of patients using iPods programmed by occupational therapists to develop positive work behaviors, according to the study authors in a statement.
In one instance, a patient employed at a fast-food restaurant who would spin and hum to comfort himself when stressed used automated reminders and task checklists to help manage his job. He was still employed, continued using the iPod and was recognized as a reliable employee one year after he received the mobile device.
In another instance, an ASD patient who experienced anxiousness while travelling used a similar application that reminded her to remember her purse before getting on a bus and to call the transportation company if a bus was running late. Her manager reported that the patient was an independent and able worker six months later.
While it would be difficult to make any generalizations from cases included in the study due to variables in personal characteristics and work settings, the study demonstrates the versatility of mobile devices as workplace supports for people with ASD, according to Gentry.