Group Career Guidance Activity: Autism Spectrum Disorder | Report

Running head: GROUP CAREER GUIDANCE ACTIVITY: AUTISM SPECTRUM
DISORDER
GROUP CAREER GUIDANCE ACTIVITY: AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER
Name of the Student:
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GROUP CAREER GUIDANCE ACTIVITY: AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER1
Introduction
According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2020), Autism
Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is the name given to a range learning and cognitive symptoms
contributing to developmental disability in children with respect to their communication, social,
behavioral and emotional characteristics. While children with ASD do not demonstrate vast
behavioral differences when compared with other children, their learning, communication and
career needs are often unique (Grosshard et al., 2017). The following paper will briefly discuss
on the key career and learning competencies to be considered with respect to the development of
a Group Career Guidance Activity in children with ASD.
Discussion
Target Population
The population who will be included as a part of this group career guidance activity, are
children studying in K-3 grade, with prevalent diagnostic symptoms of ASD. The venue where
such interventions will be conducted will include a local school or disability based learning
center catering to the needs of children with ASD. To ensure collaborative participation, parents
of such children will also be included.
Developmental Stage
The developmental stage which will be considered with respect to the selected children is
Eriksson’s psychosocial development stage of industry vs. inferiority, where children
demonstrate changes with respect to independent thinking, crude abstract thought process and
leadership (Cross & Cross, 2017). However, since the selected children will have ASD,
diagnostic screening will be conducted using the Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status,

GROUP CAREER GUIDANCE ACTIVITY: AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER2
before and after the activity, for assessment of behavioral or developmental deficiencies
requiring further assessment (CDC, 2020).
Likewise, children with ASD have been evidenced to demonstrate diverse behavioral and
learning abilities. These include: a preference for routine, inability to work in distractive stimuli,
lack of empathy, lack of organizational skills, inability to understand or express complex words
or sentences and inadequacy to perform back-to-back or abstract activities. These deficits are to
be considered when developing learning and career competencies as well as relevant teaching
strategies (Laghi et al., 2016).
Career Competencies
Considering an ASD individual’s ability to perform well in routine and limited stimuli, it
has been evidenced that careers associated with programming, researching, product
manufacturing and product handling or quality assurance are useful employment opportunities
for such people to thrive in. Likewise, ASD children and individuals engaging in veterinary
services are also a useful career option in terms of inducting relaxation, grounding and
management of anxiety associated ASD symptoms (Wehmeyer & Zager, 2019).
Group Intervention Plan
Thus, the interventions of given career guidance activity have been developed with
respect to the above identified behavioral issues in ASD children. The first activity comprises of
children being encouraged to not just develop their career plans and future dreams but also to
organize and structure the same across various ages and stages of their growth and development.
It has been evidenced that ASD impairs a child’s cognitive ability to appropriately use language
for written expression as well to engage in daily life activities of organization (Ferland et al.,