Reasonable adjustments in psychometric testing for a teen with ASD?

[Bonkerssometimes]

in context of work experience application.

Any thoughts gratefully appreciated

here

DS aged 14 applied for work experience in a big engineering company. He had a day of work shadowing there last year and become totally enamored with the company, spent a lot of time and effort learning new skills and preparing for work experience.

However, DS has ASD, (Aspergers) and this was disclosed to the company last year and in this year's application. The company was supposed to contact him to discuss reasonable adjustments, but they didn't. They sent a link to complete an online assessment, which he did when I was out shopping. He thought it would be an IQ type test in which he would score well, but it was a personality test, asking him to make impossible choices whether he is more like this or more like that. DS was panicked and confused, couldn't relate to many of the questions, couldn't make his mind which answer to choose and was pushing neither most of the time. He tells me it all depends on the specific circumstances. For example, he likes team work and is good at it, when it's with familiar people and performing a task which plays to his strengths, when the team makes him feel like he is an asset. On the other hand he has dispraxia and is useless in sports, so his classmates used to ask him not to come to school on competition days so he wouldn't bring the team down... This is not a teamwork experience to look forward to. He needed an option to qualify and explain, and discuss all this in context. People with ASD have experiences which are distinct to those of most 'normal' teenagers. So it is normal that DS would have a different take. He also looks at things from a different lens, so his self reported perception would be unreliable. It is often said that the best way to assess candidates with ASD is through work trials.

So DS now received an automatic feedback report which is totally not representing him. It says he is week in attention to detail, following procedures and complying with rules. But these are his strengths, truly, he is really good at those. Predictably, it say that team work is not DS's strengths and he is not suited for customer facing roles. But this basically confirms his diagnosis, it doesn't mean that he can't do well in the technical, very specific placement he applied for, which is not "customer facing". So we are expecting a 'Thanks, but no thanks' email tomorrow.

DS worked so hard to prepare for this...

Are those tests at all validated in the case of individuals on autistic spectrum ? Any literature on how ASD individual react to those? Any good practice guidance about this?

My concern is that they should have contacted me to ask for reasonable adjustments. He could have had more familiarization practice, some help to relate to the questions and identify the answer that really represent him. Could they give him another chance? Perhaps they should scrap this results all together and interview him, look at the portfolio of his projects, which does show huge accuracy, compliance and attention to detail.

Any literature as to validity of those tests vs ASD?
What reasonable adjustments should be made?
What could we do to save the situation?

Any comments/advice greatly appreciated.

Guys, any thoughts? Does anyone knows anyone who knows anything?

This is about how statemented DC progress in employment. I know it seems like in a different life, but it approaches much faster than I expected.

Before my DS was diagnosed, I just tried to keep our heads above water while being accused of poor parenting. The diagnoses was a relief, it explained everything, but problems at school didn't show signs of abating and I learned the new meaning of the word 'Statement'. Before I realized, I was running from EP assessment to the OT, to the SALT... Then there were 2 tribunals .. With the secondary school and the statement sorted, I thought I could relax and enjoy the scenery. But no. It's the every day battle with homework, endless meetings at school and another tribunal...
Before I could even contemplate the end to the school 'experience' I find that DS really needs help with work experience. This is the next frontier.

The first scare was when we couldn't find a one day work shadowing for DS. Other DC from his school went to shadow mum or dad, but DH's employer didn't want to do it when we disclosed ASD. DC struggled to find a volunteering place for DofE, as charity shops that took other volunteers from his school suddenly remembered about their health and safety problems that would affect DS.

Now he has a realistic chance of finding a work experience placement, but hey, the first hurdle is a psychometric personality test which shoed a profile consistent with ASD and seem to have eliminated DS from the selection process.

Any advice as to how an individual with ASD could avoid a head-on collision with Psychometric testing and to go around it?

PolterGoose, do you know any personality test practice resources?

DS applied for a very technical back office placement, yet the psychometric test was designed to select for commercial client facing roles...

So how to go around this?

Would he be capble of writing a letter explaining just what he thought of the questions and the way he was unable to relate to their context? In polite terms, of course! He might get brownie points for showing that initiative and demonstrating self-awareness in ways outside of their little corporate HR box.

He could, ouyve. But surely first he needs to ask for reasonable adjustments, otherwise it is a shot in the dark without any control.

On the website they are asking to contact them to tell them which reasonable adjustments are needed. But how would he know? What to say if they ask?

Does anyone have experience of graduates with ASD getting reasonable adjustments in personality profiling tests and assessment centers?
Any idea what Employability do in such cases?

The links make pretty grim reading, or maybe it's just me at this time in the day...

The lawyers' article suggests that psychometric profiling is useful to flash out people with Aspergers because they are almost surely going to have social problems in the work place or could even cause trouble e.g. Garry McKinnon....

The NAS forum is a scream from a 30 years old Aspie still struggling to get beyond the first round of job interviews due to his ASD.

There was this film, can't remember the name : the action hero (Harrison Ford) is screening employees by recording their blinking pattern to flash out robots and exterminate them.

Actually, after second thought I am a bit angry.

The Lawyers article is basically a manual on 'how to' not employ people with ASD because they cost money. Why nobody takes an issue with that?

NAS campaigns for many things, but never for employment. Nobody ever talks about the REAL inclusion in employment, not the cynical box ticking.

Is the idea that DC will live with parents, so it's sorted for the government?

A lot of IT companies would be bereft of staff if those with aspergers were deliberately excluded. Many of the people DH has worked with are way beyond quirky or a bit socially awkward.

Not sure I even dare read the links. It's actually a bit frightening that DS1 has hit a stage when he's a lot closer to all this work experience angst than he is to his nursery days, now.

Ouryve How about this passage:

'There is little doubt that his IT skills would enable him to sail through an aptitude test relating to work with computers.

General topics that feature in many tests include numerical reasoning, working with graphs and tables, and diagrammatic reasoning. There are many more topics but it is easy to see how a person who is within the autistic spectrum and who might need to have additional social and psychological support in the workplace could slip through the testing net. This is because there are masking skills that can be acquired by high-functioning individuals who may not be diagnosed without a full psychiatric evaluation including investigation into communication issues.'

That paragraph did make me go . Those pesky people on the autistic spectrum with their deviousness and.... oh, wait.