LaunchPad: Getting Ready for Adult Years

More About LaunchPad

LaunchPad is a new program for middle, high school, and post-IEP youth on the autism spectrum, and their families. Each LaunchPad evaluation is quite different, but each one is aimed at helping parents and the young person themselves understand transition to adulthood. This includes assessing for well-matched vocational training and apprenticeships, as well as higher education where prerequisites in low interest coursework will not result in early drop-out. LaunchPad is based on the idea of ‘starting low, going slow, but going as far as you can go,’—which might mean, living at home, and ‘just’ succeeding at a ‘supporting role’ job before more tackling more socially challenging activities like starting college courses, or living in a dorm or with house mates. We see even the smartest, most cognitively-high scoring autistic youth as vulnerable, so we eschew just ‘go out there and let’s see if it can work,’ Data tell us many autistic youth accrue depression and anxiety after early post-high school failures at college level coursework, or at jobs they are smart enough but not social enough to master, or at living outside the cocoon of their family home. For youth with autism and other learning or developmental disabilities, we brainstorm a ‘fit’ for strengths as well as help parents envision what long-terms supports are likely to be needed.

For teens and young adults with an intellectual disability as well as an ASD, we help parents think about and plan a conservatorship or Special Needs Trust to create security and safety around future ‘forks in the road’ their child may face. We deal with the practical and psychological factors involved in making future plans for your child, and support referrals and collaborate with legal specialists.

Is LaunchPad for your family?

By the teen years, parents start to wonder what adulthood may hold for their child with autism. IEPs will have focussed on remediating weaknesses, but at ACNC we believe high school, and even middle school is the time to shift the focus to identifying what the individual can do best—while continuing a ‘traditional’ IEP. Some with autism may be rightfully college-bound some not, or ‘not right away.’ Some may benefit from gap years between high school to further identify and develop vocational aptitudes or to consolidate independent living success. In a LaunchPad assessment we can use cognitive, achievement, and aptitude testing to discuss interests and identify potential areas of successes. At ACNC, consultation with the youth, separately with his or her parents, and with the family together are all key components of a LaunchPad work-up. Our key principle for transition to adult living involves to ‘start low, go slow, but go as far as you can go.’ The goal is to guide transitional age youth to achieve early success rather than ‘let’s just try this’—and then having to cope with the fallout of early failure—understood to be foundational to the lack of independent living for many autistic adults in their 20s and 30s.