Work It Out
April 19, 2009 by Jeff Stimpson
Filed under Health
An item in the inbox has made me think of Alex’s future worklife: CareerAdvice, “Succeeding at Work With Autism.”
Citing such luminaries as Temple Grandin, the piece discusses how the workworld needs to prepare for an influx of autistic adults as those “1 in every 150″ mature, and what skills the autistic possess to handle a job. “Jobs requiring specific, concrete tasks such as library cataloging, equipment or graphic design, data gathering and mathematical modeling are well-suited to autistics,” reads the piece. “They do less well in positions requiring complex social skills, such as management. And jobs that depend on multi-tasking, such as being a restaurant hostess or receptionist who must simultaneously answer phones and type, are also poorly suited to autistics.”
Image: sxc.hu
Library cataloging? Definitely, as long as you teach Alex not to take the dust jackets off the books first. Equipment or graphic design? Not for him in my opinion, but that’s due more to his inate abilities and talents than due to autism. Data gathering and mathematical modeling? Maybe the first; I’m not sure what the second is, so I guess I’m not suited to it, either.
Surely there will be somebody who just needs something put in order? Or done over and over? Hell, I’ve had more jobs like that than I can remember.
I can’t imagine Alex, who’s almost 11, holding a job (or voting, or driving a car). He has answered phones, though he’s better at hanging them up in the proper cradle. I wonder if he’ll ever make a reservation, let alone take one. I certainly can’t imagine him managing anyone, unless his job was to direct staffers to Elmo DVDs or bags of pretzels.
This isn’t to say he’ll never do them. But like so much of being the parent of an autistic child and like so much of what I have to continuously fight, it is to say I can’t now imagine him doing them.
I had a career counselor tell me to go into data processing because I had no social skills. Problem is, data processing, library work, etc, would bore me to tears. I don’t need a ton of social interaction, but I do need some, and I need something that challenges me and makes me think. Different people need different things, and there is no ‘perfect’ job for eveeryone on the spectrum. Which is why I never, ever, ever reveal the ASD in a job interview; it’d be like putting myself into a box and giving somebody else the key.
This post made me sad… what do you see in his future? working at a school district I have seen amazing teachers who help teach job skills that the parent never thought possible. Helping sorting in school cafeteria, hanging clothes as a local store, watering plants at a nursery. And these are students who would be considered much lower functioning than your son. As we teach these kiddos to adapt to our world, more and more are slowly learning to adapt to theirs as well.