by Joanna Lilley, MA, NCC, founder of Lilley Consulting
Should your child on the Autism Spectrum take a Gap Year Program after High School?
Gap Year Programs for High school graduates on the spectrum exist, and they can do wonders for
your son or daughter with ASD. I am not referring to community mental health-type group homes,
at all but real gap year programs, college support programs that specifically work with young
adults with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis.
Many kids graduating from high school are burnt out from twelve straight years of challenging
academics, and could make use of a Gap Year Program just to breathe more freely. You have to
be careful because there are gap year programs for standard learning kids that would not be at
all appropriate for your child with ASD. But there are also a decent number of young adult
transitional programs that focus on this population. In addition, there are community-integrated programs
that specialize in working with this population. There are even vocationally focused or
internship-based programs that focus on working with young adults with ASD. As parent of a young
person with an ASD diagnosis, you need to know that options are available outside your home for
your emerging adult.
The programs you are looking for aren't always easy to find. Some may fall under "gap year"
programming; some may call their programs "failure-to-launch" programs to distinguish them from
gap year programs for standard learners. COVID-19 has made life and learning more complicated
for everyone and every type of schooling. Gap Year Programs for kids on the spectrum are no
exception to this: Whereas work-based programs may have focused on jobs within the community,
now it's just a little more complicated to find work that isn't overwhelming or over-stimulating
and will permit social distancing rules to be observed.
Of course everyone has a baseline of anxiety when it comes to continued social distancing:
if your child is stressed and has started to regress at home, a good gap year program may be
just what you need to get him back on the road to being independent.
Gap Year Programs are all different, and you need to look at the programs you are considering carefully:
What to Look for in a Gap Year Program for Kids with ASD? Among the factors to
consider:
So if a standard college is not in the cards for your son or daughter this coming Fall, there
are still other good options for him or her: your young adult doesn't have to stay at home
until "COVID-19 is over."
You need a plan for your child: Young adults with an ASD diagnosis deserve the opportunity
to flourish. Just ask us, and we can help you find some really good options.
How to ferret out all of this information? There is no one website where you can check for all
of these factors. The best way to get connected to this type of resource for your young adult
is to hire a professional who knows the programs well to help you. It is not so easy to find
these programs and examine their reputations, whether they are admitting new participants,
and whether your child would be be a good social fit for their current community.
I also encourage families to ask about the financial stability of the program they are inquiring
about (there are programs like this that open for a year or two, can't make a go of it, and
shut down without much notice to parents). These are things families may not even think to
inquire about unless they were working with a professional to help guide them.
Disclaimer: Internet Special Education Resources (ISER) provides this information in an effort to help parents find local special education professionals and resources. ISER does not recommend or endorse any particular special education referral source, special educational methodological bias, type of special education professional, or specific special education professional.