The benefits of work experiences in young adults with autism for their social inclusion: Systematic literature review
Keywords:
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), social inclusion, young adult and work experiencesAbstract
This work aims to identify the benefits of work experience in young adults diagnosed with ASD and to learn how working with the social and vocational skills of these young adults can help them achieve social inclusion. Therefore, a systematic literature review was carried out, which culminated in a total of 11 articles, which were sifted by allowing themselves to be carried away by the following inclusion characteristics: that the subject of the study was consistent with the research, that it included young adults (18 - 26 years old) with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), that were not literary reviews, that were published between 2015 and 2020, from peer-reviewed academic journals, from any country and that were written in English or Spanish. After conducting a systematic literature review, it was found that work experiences can have therapeutic benefits, improving adaptive behavior in employment, increasing social self-efficacy, social cognition and social skills in young adults with ASD. Also, we found that work experiences can help the independence of young adults with ASD. In addition, we identify strategies that can help work on the social and vocational skills of this population, such as, for example, the video modeling and the ACCESS program (Adolescent curriculum for communication and effective social skills). In conclusion, providing work experiences to young people with ASD not only offers them therapeutic benefits, but also helps them gain independence.
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