Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities

of his family members and individuals who
were paid to provide a service for him, such as
the support personnel at the sheltered workshop.
He had no friends or acquaintances
with whom he regularly visited, conversed, or
shared activities when at leisure. The only leisure
activity in which he participated on a
regular basis was going to BINGO with his
parents once a week. Phillip continued to be
very social, both with individuals he knew and
with strangers. When interacting with others,
however, he was anxious and eager to please
others. Over time his interactions increasingly
were described as immature, demonstrating a
slow rate of growth in reading social cues and
using social skills. Consistent with this, Phillip
did not differentiate between (a) people who
were trustworthy and untrustworthy, and (b)
behaviors that were appropriate and inappropriate.
This resulted in him using poor judgment
and making decisions that frequently
resulted in conflict with others in the community,
in spite of the supervision he had at
home and at the sheltered workshop.
In appearance Phillip had become distinguishable
from those around him. Though he
continued to have an appropriate gait and
make appropriate eye contact with those he
passed, his clothing was ill-fitting and mismatched,
resulting in a consistently disheveled
and unkempt appearance.
Four Additional Years Later: Married Life
After dating for three years, Melinda and
Phillip married. As a result, they shared an
apartment, along with all of the responsibilities
inherent in maintaining a household, including
budgeting, paying bills, cleaning the
apartment, cooking, shopping, and clothing
care. In addition, Melinda’s parents had become
the legal guardians for both Melinda
and Phillip.
Melinda. By this time Melinda had been
an employee of the court system for seven
years. Because of her longevity in a part time
civil service position, she had become a permanent
part-time employee with full benefits.
She continued to use her literacy and math
abilities across activities at work, at home, and
in the community.
Her relationship and marriage with Phillip
resulted in two main changes in Melinda’s life.
First, her natural support network had been
expanded to include Phillip’s family, while
existing members of her network were shared
with Phillip. Second, she was exposed to additional
contexts, or life spaces, in which she
participated in activities independently.
Melinda continued, however, to receive periodic
support for budgeting, cleaning, and
clothing care through a Medicaid Waiver.
Phillip. Because of Phillip’s relationship
and marriage with Melinda, there were numerous
changes in his life. One of these
changes involved his employment status. At
one point during the three years they were
dating, Melinda was eating at one of the restaurants
she frequented after work. She observed
the owner putting a “Help Wanted”
sign in the restaurant window, indicating that
a dishwasher was needed. Melinda picked up
the sign, took it to the owner, and said “I have
a dishwasher for you.” She then arranged for
Phillip to be interviewed, after which he was
hired. Phillip did not stay in this position long
and, in fact, had held several jobs before and
after he was married. During the last observation,
Phillip recently had been offered a position
at a local grocery store where he would
assist patrons as they took groceries to their
cars and retrieve carts from the parking lot.
A second change that occurred was in
Phillip’s living arrangements. He no longer
lived with his family; rather, he shared an
apartment with Melinda and, for the first time
in his life, he shared responsibility for maintaining
a household both financially and logistically.
Like Melinda, Phillip received periodic
support for budgeting, cleaning, and
clothing care through a Medicaid Waiver.
A third change that occurred was in the
composition of Phillip’s natural support network.
Although he had not developed his own
network, he did participate with Melinda and
members of her natural support network. As
this progressed, however, Phillip increasingly
initiated interactions and activities with members
of Melinda’s network and, while initially
appropriate, his efforts to engage these members
often were found to be objectionable. For
example, he would call one individual 10
times a day to obtain reassurance that something
he was doing (e.g., clothes he was wearing)
was appropriate; he would call an individual
and ask the same question repeatedly,
to be certain he had the correct answer. These
Long-term Outcomes / 333