Employment Programs and Interventions for Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A Systematic Literature Review
Keywords:
autism, supported employment, employment interventions, employment programs, systematic literature reviewAbstract
The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of employment programs and interventions available for people with autism, through a systematic literature review (SLR). The research questions that guided this work were: (a) what is the most successful intervention model in the employment placement of people with autism? and (b) what are the benefits of employment programs and interventions for people with ASD? Systematic searches were carried out during the month of April 2020, and three resources resulted from the search. The search limits were: (a) Spanish and English language, (b) years (2010-2020), (c) peer-reviewed, and (d) academic journals. The findings demonstrated that supported employment service interventions are particularly understudied. Despite this, the research carried out suggests that supported employment services are favorable for the population with autism in terms of obtaining and retaining employment. On the other hand, the models of support services that are used with the ASD population are usually: (a) competitive employment, (b) self-employment, (c) sustained employment and (e) personalized employment, the latter being the most used and successful. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is a need to develop projects to serve the adult population with autism and developmental deficiencies for the work.
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