Robert Reuss's List: Aspergers

• 80% of grown-ups with Aspergers do not have full-time jobs – not because they can’t do the work, but because they can’t manage to be socially acceptable while they get the work done.
• Both high and low functioning individuals have very poor short-term working memory, but they often have a better long-term memory than most normal individuals.
• I cannot handle multiple tasks at the same time.
• Sell your work
• Make a portfolio of your work.
• Jobs should have a well-defined goal or endpoint.
• Computer science
• accounting, engineering, library science, and art
• making themselves so good in a specialized field that individuals will be willing to "buy" their skill even though social skills are poor
• Good Jobs for Visual Thinkers—
• • Animal trainer or veterinary technician -- Dog obedience trainer, behavior problem consultant
• • Commercial art -- Advertising and magazine layout can be done as freelance work
• • Computer programming -- Wide-open field with many jobs available especially in industrial automation, software design, business computers, communications and network systems
• • Computer-troubleshooter and repair -- Can visualize problems in computers and networks
• • Handcrafts of many different types such as wood carving, jewelry making, ceramics, etc.
• • Photography -- Still and video, TV cameraman can be done as freelance work
• • Web page design -- Find a good niche market can be done as freelance work
• Adults with Aspergers have a hard time finding jobs now. What will the jobless rate be for that group when — if current statistics are correct — the 1 in 110 children who have Aspergers try to become employed? As it is now, lots of adults with Aspergers are looking for full-time jobs, but their gifts are not recognized.
• I can't even get hired for a crappy minimum wage job.
• I am over-qualified for non - graduate jobs.
• No one knows how to support adults with AS.
• Virtually all jobs require social skills. That's the whole problem.
• I have never worked more than part time
• I do feel self-employment is the best route for me, whether it's illustration or lawn mowing or whatever. It saves you from the dreaded office politics!

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• Sosh app to improve social skills for those with Asperger's syndrome.
• Sosh joins an exploding list of apps to help those with Autism Spectrum Disorders
• The ease and portability of the iPad, released a year and a half ago, is also fueling the growing use.
• "It's huge, and it's only going to get bigger. It's absolutely crazy," said Gary James
• A4CWSN — website in January to help parents wade through the choices.
• "Ever since the iPad, the app world has gone absolutely bonkers."
• Steve Jobs might not have had children with disabilities in mind when developing the iPad, but the touchscreen 1-pound computer tablet has opened a new world of communication and learning for autistic children.
• Hundreds of apps are available to teach everything from fine motor skills to getting dressed. They include games to help promote eye contact, interpret facial expressions and react to social cues. They can even prepare kids for situations like going to a restaurant, getting a haircut or seeing a doctor.

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• show off "Sosh," the mobile-device application and accompanying book that helps young people dealing with Asperger's Syndrome.
• They developed and released Sosh, a mobile-device application designed, in the words of its iTunes description, “to help tweens, teens and young adults improve social skills.” The program currently is compatible only with iPhones and iPads.
• The app is designed for a slightly older audience for whom social interaction disabilities are a particular concern.
• Sosh is considerably more than a slang dictionary.
• In sub-menus built around five Rs on the home page — relate, recognize, regulate, reason, relax — users can find exercises to help develop conversational skills: how to maintain eye contact, how far away to stand in a conversation, how to be a good listener. As some Asperger students tend to speak loudly, there is a Voice Meter — similar to the volume level displayed in basketball arenas — that shows a student how loud he is talking. There are relaxation techniques, both audio and visual, that can be helpful to a wide group of people.

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• “In my experience, autism can be an advantage,” he wrote. “People with autism need opportunities and support more than they need treatment.”

   

  He lauded the attention to detail, intense focus, systematic thinking, superior memories and whipsmart IQs of the autistic people he works with in his lab, including researcher Michelle Dawson.
• Four out of five autistic adults are still dependent on their parents. Nine out of 10 have no regular job.
• Because autism — characterized by repetitive behaviours, restricted interests and preoccupations and difficulties in basic social and communicative behaviours such as eye contact, intonation and facial expressions — is a lifelong disorder, parents can be caregivers for life.
• Children tend to be the focus, autism organizations admit. Adults are overlooked.
• But successfully making it through an interview can be one of the biggest hurdles — especially in such a competitive economy, said Susan Robins, manager of adult services at the Geneva Centre for Autism in Toronto, which offers clinical interventions and training for people on the autism spectrum.
• “Around the world we know that average lifetime cost to society to an individual with autism … is $3.4-million per individual. Three-quarters of those costs are incurred in adulthood largely around services to enable and facilitate individual vocations,” Dr. Clarke said
• some data suggests every dollar you invest in pre-vocational programming for people gives you a $7 return. “I actually think that number is going to be even better in the area of autism because individuals with autism have a great capability to learn, they’re just often held back by specific skill deficits or not given a chance.”

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• In only one year the Apple iPad has revolutionized the tech industry. 15 Million iPads have been sold and estimates are that within the next 3 years over 115 million tablets will be shipped. Dozens if not hundreds of applications have been created that enhance the quality of life for individuals with all types of disabilities.
• In only one year the Apple iPad has revolutionized the tech industry. 15 Million iPads have been sold and estimates are that within the next 3 years over 115 million tablets will be shipped. Dozens if not hundreds of applications have been created that enhance the quality of life for individuals with all types of disabilities.