Alex
Alex is a seventeen- year-old student with autism. He receives special education
services in a self-contained classroom in an urban high school. At school, Alex
receives instruction both in the classroom and in the community to improve his skills
vocationally, academically, and socially. He is currently participating in community
based training in an office setting completing tasks such as data entry and spreadsheet
development. He is diligent and methodical in completing the varied tasks assigned
to him.
Currently, Alex works part-time at a local office supply store entering numerical
data to keep track of stock and services rendered by store staff. His behavior is
appropriate at work and he has expressed that he likes working. He is punctual each
day, and he is willing to stay late when needed. He really enjoys getting a paycheck
although he usually spends his money on fast food and movies from the local video
rental shop. Alex is detail-oriented and reviews each column of numbers several
times before moving on to type another column. This results in slower production
rates in comparison to other workers who complete similar tasks.
Alex is intimidated by his boss because he knows that the boss has the ability to
fire him, a fact that his teachers at school presented during a unit about behaviors
in the workplace. For some reason, Alex has perseverated on this fact, making him
afraid to talk to his boss. Also, Alex knows that at times his speech is not understood
by people he doesn’t know, so sometimes he avoids talking to people he doesn’t know
well. As a result, instead of speaking to his boss, Alex usually tells problems
or concerns to his school job coach who voluntarily visits Alex at the job site
each week. The job coach is concerned that Alex will not ask for help if an emergency
occurs, and that a certain level of communication between Alex and his boss is necessary
to develop a good working relationship. The boss views Alex as a valuable employee
and is willing to provide opportunities for Alex to develop appropriate communication
skills. The boss has also expressed an interest in employing Alex for more hours
per week after graduation, if he continues to develop his business skills.
Alex’s mother has expressed that she will support her son in his job at the office
supply store by helping him work on skills that are needed for the job, but she
believes that he will need supports to be successful in this employment setting,
especially when new tasks are assigned. She knows that after Alex graduates, realistically
his school job coach will stop visiting him at work so she can’t depend on his continued
help. Currently, Alex has no services from the local vocational rehabilitation agency,
although his mother voiced an interest in this at his last IEP meeting.
This document was produced under U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special
Education Programs Grant No. H326J050004. Marlene Simon-Burroughs served as the
project officer. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the positions
or polices of the Department of Education. No official endorsement by the U.S. Department
of Education of any product, commodity, service or enterprise mentioned in this
publication is intended or should be inferred. This product is public domain. Authorization
to reproduce it in whole or in part is granted. While permission to reprint this
publication is not necessary, the citation should be: National Secondary Transition
Technical Assistance Center (2007) Indicator 13 Training Materials, Charlotte, NC,
NSTTAC.
