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Teaching life skills to adults disabled by autism

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Abstract

The acquisition of life skills is a high priority for adults disabled by autism who are living in community-based residential programs. A training program was implemented and evaluated that consisted of analyzing life skills into component steps and providing increasing levels of assistance according to a predetermined schedule. Five adults who were severely disabled by autism and who lived in group homes in the community served as participants. All five adults showed progress in targeted life skills, and four of the five achieved independence on their targeted skills. The usefulness of this training model in community-based residential programs is discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Community Services for Autistic Adults and Children, Rockville, Maryland

    Marcia Datlow Smith & Ronald Belcher

Authors
  1. Marcia Datlow Smith
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  2. Ronald Belcher
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Additional information

Preparation of this article was supported in part by the United States Department of Education Grant G008430115, by the National Institute of Handicapped Research, Department of Education Grant G008435019, and by a Mary Switzer Fellowship from the National Institute of Handicapped Research. However, the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the U.S. Department of Education. The work presented in this article was conducted at Community Services for Autistic Adults and Children, 751 Twinbrook Parkway, Rockville, Maryland. We gratefully acknowledge Patricia Juhrs for her administrative support, Lydia Sporidis and Judy Lewis for their clerical assistance, Derek Berrian for preparing the figures, and Jack Smith for reviewing and editing the draft of this article.

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Smith, M.D., Belcher, R. Teaching life skills to adults disabled by autism. J Autism Dev Disord 15, 163–175 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01531602

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