Autism and Work Experience

[Wolf68]

Hi, I am the mum of a high-functioning autistic 18 yo girl. She was diagnosed last year, she is the shy, introverted type. She missed on work experience opportunities during the pandemic, and missed a year of A levels due to a physical condition that landed her in hospital, so she is now in the first year of A levels. She hardly gets out and has very litte contact with people other than when she is in college, and I know she does not have much contact with other students there.
I believe she needs a part time job urgently, to get used to the outside world. I am having to push for this as she has no initiative and my husband is not exactly proactive either.
I urged her to apply for a job in a local supermarket but she did not pass the first interview. I believe she has problems communicating and probably showed 0 enthusiasm about the job. She is also gender dysphoric and presents like a boy, but has kept her girls name. I have no idea how she navigates this socially, being shy and zero assertive, even in her gait and posture. I am very worried, and would like some advice from other parents that may have kids with these autistic traits.

There is a programme called kickstart that my company (high street retail) uses. We had 4 teenage girls work with us over Christmas through that scheme (3 autistic 1 adhd) All seemed to enjoy the experience and 1 was taken on as an associate, the others left for various reasons. Have a look on there website, good luck to your daughter:)

I think you're right that you're panicking. There is so much pressure on this age group to be making huge decisions and to be charging off into education or employment.

At 18, she has fifty years of potential working life. People have multiple careers now, retrain multiple times. It really does not matter if it takes her longer to be ready.

There is plenty of time to take this at the right pace for her. That's more likely to be successful anyway.

Also, bigger companies are increasingly running specific autism hiring schemes or internships.

https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/employment

I'm not sure if this fully fits the bill of what you're looking for, but my ds had a very successful civil service placement via this organisation. Might be worth a look... www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk/what-we-do/employment/paid-work-experience

Placemarking on this thread as so much useful advice. My DS is in a similar situation, he could potentially be an excellent worker but getting a foot in the door seems practically impossible when so quiet and introverted!

High functioning doesn't mean she's high functioning compared to an NT person, it means she's high functioning compared to many ND people. It's not misleading at all if you compare someone with Aspergers (ie high functioning) with someone with Classic autism. I know the NHS have got rid of these diagnoses now and lumped everyone in together but that has only IMO been so that they can make it much, much harder to get assessed as they are so ridiculously over stretched. Parenting a 'high functioning' child may be difficult but parenting a child with no speech who cannot communicate at all and has constant violent, self harming melt downs where you don't know what the triggers are is a whole other ball game.

OP I agree with others that voluntary work could be a really helpful stepping stone into work. Also if she likes animals then what about offering to look after people cats/small animals while they are away on holiday for a small amount of money. Dog walking might be a possibility as well depending on her college hours. There is very little socialising required for looking after animals so it could really suit her.

My daughter is nearly 18, Tourettes,ADHD and ASD ( quite difficult to tell what is what tbh). Last year I felt like you , she's really clever but all I want her to achieve is some hope of independence. Her anxiety is probably really the main problem to function. Because she missed work experience, I took her into work with me last summer and had her work for my co worker for a day which really spurred her on because actually she needed no accommodations, she was fab but she discovered that somewhere 'safe'. By Xmas she managed an interview at Tesco and got a temp job ( they have a guaranteed interview if you have a disability which helped). Interestingly this also meant she managed to make phonecalls which were impossible before. She hopefully starts waitressing at a pub next week. Things are far from perfect but she is starting to get there, but like I say I just wanted to let you know that things can change!

Thank you so much for all the good advice and your positive stories!
I agree @Choconut high functioning is certainly high compared to classic autism. I don't know much about the condition, and why what looks to me like very different conditions, receive the same label.

My eldest is the same age snd in a very similar position. We are working on him feeling confident to apply for a voluntary position at the moment. He has sent an email this weekend which I’m so pleased about 🙂 he’s found a shop that represents his interests and has approached them to volunteer.
Is there a similar business that your daughter could approach? You say she is interested in sewing, is there a fabric/sewing shop that she could contact?

My DS (19 and autistic) volunteered one morning a week at a local museum while he was in 6th form, the recruitment part was all
done online, no interview, it was a nice low pressure job and he learned useful skills (hos to use a till and cardreader etc).