WUSTL study on young adults with autism in the workplace continues to get recognition

With awareness ever increasing about young adults with autism transitioning into the workforce, a 2012 study by Washington University in St. Louis researcher Paul Shattuck, PhD, associate professor at the Brown School, continues to get national recognition.

Shattuck

The study, titled “Postsecondary Education and Employment Among Youth With an Autism Spectrum Disorder” was published in June 2012 in the journal Pediatrics and tracked adults with autism over their first six years post-high school.

The study was one of 20 selected by the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and the Office of Autism Research Coordination for inclusion in the 2012 IACC Summary of Advances in Autism Spectrum Disorder Research.

The Summary of Advances, published in conjunction with April being national Autism Awareness Month, is a collection of studies selected by the IACC as the most significant biomedical and services research advances in the field of autism spectrum disorder research in the previous year.

Shattuck says very little is known about how life unfolds and what life looks like for adults with autism. “This study is really breaking new ground in terms of telling the story of what life looks like as people enter adulthood,” he says. “We chose to focus purposefully on young adulthood in the first few years after high school because that really is the beginning of adulthood. That sets the stage.

“If young people have a good launch during those first few years after high school, it sets them on a path that can spell success for many years to come. If they have a troubled launch on the years after high school, that can spell a troubled path,” he says.

A video of Shattuck discussing the study is below. To read more about the study, click here.

This is yet another distinction for Shattuck’s research. In December 2012, the study was chosen as one of the “Top Ten Autism Research Advances of 2012” by the advocacy organization Autism Speaks.

In 2009, his study on the age of diagnosis among children with autism was recognized as one of the most important autism studies of the year by both Autism Speaks and the IACC.

The IACC also recognized Shattuck’s 2011 study on the use of services by adults with autism as one of that year’s 20 most impactful scientific studies in the field of autism.

http://youtu.be/Qyl2ZQRb4dsPaul Shattuck, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School, discusses the study chosen by Autism Speaks as one of the ‘Top Ten Research Advances of 2012.’