Each year, the TASH Conference strengthens the disability field by connecting attendees to innovative information and resources, facilitating connections between stakeholders within the disability movement, and helping attendees reignite their passion for an inclusive world. This year’s conference theme, “Gateway to Equity,” explores inclusive communities, schools, and workplaces that support people with disabilities, including those with complex support needs, in living a fair, just, and balanced life. Return to TASH website.
Importance of Teaching Job Interviewing Skills Transition from high school to the community is a point at which individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face unanticipated struggles (Osbourne & Reed, 2008). Shattuck and his colleagues (2012) surveyed 500 parents, guardians, and young adults with ASD. They found more than 50% of young adults, who had left high school in the past 2 years, had no participation in employment and also indicated that young adults with ASD had the lowest rates of participation in employment compared to young adults with other disabilities. One of the reasons why they are struggling with finding jobs is a lack of job interviewing skills. It is apparent that individuals with ASD have a hard time securing employment without the verbal and non-verbal communication skills required for job interviews (Higgins, et al, 2008). In this respect, it is important for special educators to teach these skills to this population. Strategies for Teaching Job Interviewing Skills Carter and his colleagues (2007) indicated that job interviewing skills could be best taught directly and systematically in a supportive and non-threatening class environment to learn and practice social and emotional development. Specifically, there have been a number of different strategies to teach students with ASD job interviewing skills, such as Peer Tutoring (PT; Bobroff & Sax, 2010; Kunsch, Jitendra, & Sood, 2007), Interview Skills Curriculum (ISC; Morgan, Leatzow, Clark, & Siller, 2014), and by using technology (Smith et al, 2014). Purpose of the TASH Talk This TASH Talk will discuss a literature on strategies for teaching job interviewing skills to students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Several empirical studies on these strategies will be briefly presented, as well as implications and suggestions for future research.
