Self-determination describes a set of skills that result in an individual’s ability to make life decisions and solve problems related to life goals (Wehmeyer & Powers, 2007). A person is “self-determined” when they can make their own choices and decisions, solve life problems, set goals, and implement actions to achieve those goals (Martin & Marshall, 1995). There are impressive research findings developing around the topic of self-determination for students and adults with disabilities (Martin, Dycke, D’Ottavio, & Nickerson, 2007; Thoma, Williams, & Davis, 2005). This literature indicates that students and adults with disabilities who receive education and training in self-determination have higher academic productivity, better employment outcomes, and better problem-solving skills (Goldberg, Higgins, Raskind, & Herman, 2003; Konrad, Fowler, Walker, Test, & Wood, 2007; Wehmeyer & Powers, 2007). These findings demonstrate the importance of teaching the component skills that result in self-determination to students with disabilities (Wehmeyer, Gragouda, & Shogren, 2006).

At the same time, individuals with ASD may have difficulty mastering self-determination due to the nature of their disability. Specifically, mastery of self-determination requires the development of communication and social interaction to assure that the individual is able to self-advocate and self-direct his or her own life. These are also core deficits in ASD. The fact that these challenges are present neither diminishes nor negates the importance of self-determination in the life of a young adult with ASD. Rather, it behooves transition educators and support providers to address these deficit areas from the perspective of self-determination. That is, when teaching communication, it should be through the lens of self-determination. Educators of students of all ages can accomplish this task by teaching persons with ASD to communicate the essential functions of behavior. Rather than focusing on labeling items or objects, educators encourage self-determination when they teach students with ASD to communicate their choices, ask for help, request a break from difficult tasks or environments, and request attention from those with whom they want to interact. By focusing on these types of messages, educators support self-determination in their students.

This holds for students across the spectrum of ASD. For those with more significant communication challenges, the link between communication and self-determination is clear. For those who have Aspergers disorder, though, the same holds true. In the previous scenario where Justin told his teacher to “back off!” this may appear, on the surface to be “self-determined.” Realistically though, this is a rough attempt at expressing his need for a break. He will likely find more success if he learns to monitor his behavior and express his needs in a way that draws those who would help to his cause. Improving his social communication skills would also improve his ability to become self-determined.

Self-management is a specific skill within the self-determination curriculum that bears special mention for individuals with ASD. All of the scenarios described above involve behavior that ranges from mildly inappropriate to fully unacceptable. While these types of behaviors may be more manageable in the context of school, they can be extremely disruptive in a workplace or community location. Thus, it is essential that educators mindfully move from providing direct behavior support for individuals with ASD to teaching them to monitor their own behavior and access their own supports.

Self-management is an empirically based procedure that individuals with a variety of disabilities, including those with ASD, have used to change their own behavior (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007; Couglin, McCoy, Kenzer, Mathur, & Zucker, 2012; Sheffield & Waller, 2010). Self-management is an effective technique to increase targeted replacement behaviors, adaptive social skills, communication skills, and school and vocational skills (Southall & Gast, 2011). When an individual is adept at self-management, they are frequently able to generalize behaviors between contexts, adjust behavior based upon situations, and develop behaviors to cope with difficult situations (Lee, Simpson, & Shogren, 2007). As Lee, Simpson and Shogren demonstrate in their meta-analysis of self-management for students with ASD, “Self-management strategies empower students to control their own behavior instead of relying on parent or teacher prompts or external interventions…” (2012, pp. 2–3). For transition-aged youth and young adults with ASD, the use of self-management is essential due to the frequent lack of access to continuous support in work, university, or community settings (Getzel & Wehman, 2005; Schall, 2010). As students enter high school, educators should rapidly move from externally cued behavior supports to self-management.

Andre is a 32-year-old man who was diagnosed with Aspergers disorder at the age of 28 years old. He was seeking therapy for long-term unemployment and underemployment. Although he had successfully completed a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, he struggled throughout his life interacting successfully with others. In fact, his peer interaction skills were so poor that he lost numerous jobs due to a failure to “work as a team player” or “get along with co-workers.” Co-workers reported that Andre was rude, abrupt, disorganized, and frequently came to work disheveled without having showered or even brushed his teeth. His personality and lack of personal hygiene skills made others at work avoid him. He reported that his supervisors said he could “do the work well and was rarely, if ever, absent, but he was too offensive to other employees to be successful.” Andre’s story is unfortunately all too often the case for adults with ASD (Hurlbutt & Chalmers, 2004; Shogren & Plotner, 2012). His story also illustrates a little acknowledged challenge for persons with ASD. Specifically, regardless of the individuals intellectual abilities, individuals with ASD frequently struggle with every day functional skills. According to Wehman et al., functional skills are those skills that make it possible “for students to participate in current and future environments” (2012, p. 6). Andre and many others with ASD may be able to function in the structured and predictable environment of school, but struggle to function successfully in employment, relationships, or community environments. Therefore for all transition-aged students with ASD, even for those students with ASD who have average or above average academic abilities, it is important to provide structured instruction in the essential functional skills the person will need in the next stage of life (Wehman et al., 2009).

Given the learning needs of individuals with ASD, it would be nearly impossible to teach these skills in the vacuum of high school. The rules and consequences in a school environment are contrived and do not reflect the real risk associated with problem behaviors in work and community environments. Additionally, individuals with ASD have difficulty generalizing skills between settings. Thus, all students across the ability spectrum require experiences in community, employment, and higher education environments while in high school to the degree that these experiences are a part of their vision for their future (Schall & Wehman, 2009). The best way to accomplish this is through internships in employment and dual enrollment in community college or university programs while in high school (Getzel, 2005). Some exemplary programs that offer such experiences include Project SEARCH, a community-based employment emersion model, and Mason Life and ACE-IT, integrated college experiences for young adults with intellectual disabilities including ASD (ACE-IT in College—Programs—VCU Partnership for People with Disabilities, 2012; Mason, 2010; Schall, Target, & Wehman, 2013). Programs such as these offer students the opportunity to experience work or college life while still receiving publicly funded special education services. This provides two advantages. Firstly, the students learn skills they will need in their future in the environments where those skills are needed. Secondly, special educators supporting those students learn about their skill needs in future environments. Such experiences lead to better futures planning for both the students with ASD and their IEP team (Schall, 2009).

Career development is a lifelong process where individuals with or without disabilities discover and gradually gain skills to become employed in a chosen career. For most individuals without disabilities, this process starts as early as preschool when children pretend to work the careers of admired adults around them. Career awareness leads to career exploration through middle and early high school when youth without disabilities begin to work odd jobs and complete household chores. Finally, by high school and through post-secondary educational training youth and young adults engage in career preparation when they gain the skills necessary to obtain a job in the career of their choice (Wehman et al., 2012). For students with ASD, however, this developmental sequence from pretend play to exploration to career preparation is frequently absent (Schall & Wehman, 2009). These critical developmental experiences are missing or practiced to a lesser degree. Thus, students with ASD have difficulty identifying suitable career choices by the time they reach transition age (Seltzer, Shattuck, Abbeduto, & Greenberg, 2004).

The purpose of including career development activities in the high school curriculum is to increase the person’s ability to match their strengths, preferences, and interests to a chosen career path. When students with ASD graduate from high school or college without these experiences, they have a very immature understanding of work. This then may lead to repeated failures as the individual with ASD attempts to “catch-up” in their understanding of their personal strengths and match them with a desired career. By that point, the person with ASD, like Andre, has encountered so much failure at work that they are increasingly less likely to attempt employment. In order to change this pattern, educators must provide a rich array of community-based experiences to help the person with ASD learn about himself or herself as a worker and use that experience to inform their career choices. Yet again, this set of curricular experiences applies across the ability spectrum of ASD. Table 3.2 presents each of these pivotal curriculum areas with suggested experiences to support their learning.

Those knowledgeable about ASD and curricular components of educational programming may be wondering where the curricular description for communication and social skill development is located in this discussion. In fact, each of the pivotal areas described above include significant doses of communication and social skills embedded in the related tasks. When a person with ASD learns to advocate for himself or herself, they are practicing and communicating their needs in a socially assertive manner. When a youth with autism implements a self-management program, he or she is practicing social skills to replace problem behavior. Likewise, learning community skills that will increase independence and focusing on career development activities will result in identifying essential social and communication skills to increase the person’s future success at work and in his or her community.

Educators can ensure that students with ASD are college or career ready upon graduation from high school by teaching and providing rich curricular experiences in each of these four pivotal areas. While this will address much of the challenges students with ASD encounter because of their disability, it does not ensure that adequate individualization occurs in planning or implementation of the educational program. The next section will discuss the transition process and the components of an exemplary transition program for students with ASD.

The previous section discussed essential curriculum elements that teach the necessary skills for success in employment and college. While these skill areas are necessary, they are not enough by themselves to increase success of young people with ASD in adulthood. In addition to an excellent series of curricular activities and experiences, an exemplary program requires a number of other elements. They include: