External Intervention
External Interventions
1. Stigma
Problems
- Many organisations are reluctant to hire individuals with learning disability (LD) (Harun, Che’Din, Rasdi, Farhan, & Shamsuddin, 2020).
- In fact, the 1% quota policy for public sectors has not been satisfied and still remains below quota since 2008, with only 500+ with LD serving the government as of 2015 (Lavasani, Wahat, & Ortega, 2015)
- There are still strong adherence to stereotypes of people with LD among organisations (Lavasani, Wahat, & Ortega, 2015)
- Interestingly, the Department of Social Welfare (SWD) has emphasised that adults with LD should only focus on doing low-skilled jobs
- Reflection of implicit prejudice against work potential of people with LD.
2. Parental Concerns for Child's Safety
Problems
- Parents in Malaysia are generally more concerned over the well-being of daughters with LD while working outside compared to males (perhaps due to higher potential for sexual abuse/exploitation) (Harun, Che’Din, Rasdi, Farhan, & Shamsuddin, 2020).
- Concerns of workplace discrimination includes:
- Working undesirable jobs, setting unrealistic job expectations, and relational aggression from coworkers (Lavasani, Wahat, & Ortega, 2015).
- Bias against having disabled worker as a team member (Narayanan et al., 2019)
- Concern about miscommunication with employers and coworkers, which can cause misunderstanding and conflict (Narayanan et al., 2019)
Solution to address stigma and parental concerns for child - Understanding Our Peers Program
- ‘Understanding Our Peers’ is an autism anti-stigma program originating from Australia
- This program was used to improve adolescent boy's knowledge, attitudes, and behavioural intentions toward peers with autism at school
- Here, we can slightly tweak the program to fit adults in the workplace context
- This program will target companies, especially those in public sectors, that have not hired workers with autism in the past
- Organisational recruitment (fast food chains, supermarket chains, etc.) via:
- Email
- Social media advertising
- Autism community forums
- National conferences
- The program outline is as below:
* After every session, they must reflect back to the previous session and write down three things they learnt from that session.
*Either 6 weekly sessions (1 hour each) or 12 weekly sessions (30 mins each). If 12 sessions, then split one session into 2 (e.g. session 1a and session 1 b)
Session 1
- Provide the employers and staff the program manual which will contain the program outline, activities, and additional resources. Introduce the facilitators and brainstorm the group rules.
- Start off with "The Sixth Sense" activity. First, discuss the five senses and inform them that a sixth sense, the social sense (perspective taking), also exist. Randomly ask any staff to describe what they could see from their seat and what the facilitator could and could not see from her seat to demonstrate perceptual perspective taking
- Second, hide a small object and ask a staff volunteer to leave the room, in which time the object will be moved. Ask the remaining people where the volunteer would look for the object when he returned to demonstrate cognitive perspective-taking
- Third, ask them to brainstorm feeling names and the cues one can use to determine how another is feeling to demonstrate affective perspective-taking
- Fourth, inform them that there are some people in the world who have difficulty taking the perspective of others, thus lacking this ‘social sense’.
- Homework: imagine having a child that fails to develop normally and reflect on how they would feel
Session 2
1. Review homework and address difficulties. Make a brainstorming web on the meaning of autism.
2. Have a staff volunteer read aloud a fact sheet and cartoon on autism. Have a brief workplace discussion about whether the information provided confirmed or disconfirmed their thoughts about autism and incorrect assumptions were clarified.
3. Refer to the Autism Society of America handout ‘Growing up together: Teens with autism’ (ASA 2004) (adapt it to fit adults in the workplace).
4. Watch the ‘Asperger Syndrome at Work’ and ‘Working with people with autism: the autistic perspective’ videos for a brief look on the perspective of adults with autism in the workplace.
5. Complete 5 questions related to the videos and have a brief discussion to review the answers to the questions.
6. Homework: reflect on whether the people with higher-functioning autism should inform their employer of their disorder, and provide reasons for why or why not.
Session 3
1. Review homework and address difficulties.
2. Explain to them that there is a common misconception that people with higher-functioning autism have control over their disorder, and thus choose to be rude, misbehave or act peculiarly.
3. Watch the video ‘Autism: National Autistic Society—Part 2 (socially awkward)’ which showed a man with higher-functioning autism acting in a socially inappropriate manner.
4. Use the knowledge gained from the program so far to consider why the man acted the way he did.
5. Complete a worksheet where they were asked to use their knowledge of autism to provide an alternative explanation for three different higher-functioning autistic persons’ inappropriate behaviour.
6. Have a brief discussion to review possible explanations.
7. Brainstorm the similarities and differences between neurotypical people and people with autism. At the conclusion of the activity, highlight that the quality of the similarities is greater than the differences.
8. Homework: watch the 5-min video ‘Autism: National Autistic Society Anti-bullying Campaign’ on the bullying of people with autism and comment on the thoughts and feelings it evoked in them.
Session 4
1. Review and discuss homework
2. Make a brainstorming web on how to effectively interact with people with autism. They can refer to this website for guidance.
3. Staff volunteers will read aloud excerpts from the book, ‘Autism Works : A Guide to Successful Employment across the Entire Spectrum’ (Feinstein, 2018) which provides ideas about how to appropriately engage with people with autism in the workplace.
4. Have a brief discussion about whether the suggestions from the book excerpts confirmed or disconfirmed their thoughts about how to interact with people with autism.
5. Pick 2 staff volunteers to be involved in an example role-play with the facilitator whereby a neurotypical coworker was required to defend his/her autistic coworker from workplace discriminaton.
6. Then, separate into groups of three and act out 3 provided workplace scenarios. The facilitator will observe one roleplay from each group and provide feedback.
7. Homework: Reflect on whether employees with autism should receive the same discipline/treatment at the workplace as their neurotypical coworkers, and provide reasons for why or why not.
Session 5
1. Review homework and address difficulties.
2. Brief talk from guest speakers in the session – a professional working in the field of autism and a working adult diagnosed with autism.
3. Ask them to consider how difficult it may be for someone with autism to speak in front of a large audience.
4. Emphasize the need for respect and the importance of confidentiality. Ask them to write down any questions for the speakers.
5. Following the presentations, give them opportunity to ask the speakers any relevant questions.
6. Homework: Discuss the notion that having higher-functioning autism can be a great strength (e.g. blunt comments may be interpreted as a sign of honesty) and reflect on whether this is a fair argument, noting any other autistic traits that could be interpreted as strengths.
Session 6
1. Review homework and address difficulties.
2. Brainstormed the key learning points of the program using the information provided and activities completed in the program manual.
3. Complete a mindfulness activity to encourage the staff to reflect on their own private experience of the program. Those who are comfortable can share their experience with their coworkers if they wished to.
4. Discuss why it is important to care about people with autism.
5. Have a brief class discussion which will emphasise that because everyone faces challenges in life, having understanding and being sensitive to the challenges of others are vital skills, especially if they are your coworkers.
6. Present them with certificates for completing the ‘Understanding Our Peers’ program.
Evidence
- The adolescents in the intervention condition had more knowledge about autism and more positive attitudes toward their peers with autism than the waitlisters.
- The observed changes in the knowledge and attitudes of individuals in the intervention condition were sustained at the follow-up assessment during the following school term
- Participants who were engaged more with the homework had more knowledge in the follow-up assessment than those who were less engaged.
3. Lack of workplace care/support
Problem
- There is a lack of occupational therapy for people with LD in the workplace, mainly because it requires a person-centered approach (Ineson, 2015)
- For example, it requires full attention paid to the individual and an intervention that is unique to the individual's needs and skills
- Unfortunately, it is not practical for modern workplaces which are often fast-paced and requires adaptive skills, which individuals with LD often lack
- Lack of long-term workplace support programs and individualised workplace training due to underfunding for adults with autism (Harmuth et al., 2018)
Solution for lack of workplace support and parental concern for child - Integrated Employment Success Tool (IEST)
- Integrated Employment Success Tool (IEST™) is an intervention originating from Australia and is a practical manual consisting of 8 modules (either paper based or PDF)
- Each module contains autism-specific information, checklists and goal setting activities, workplace modification strategies and additional work-related resources
- IEST can be used to improve employers’ and coworkers’ knowledge on hiring and engaging with workers with ASD, their attitudes towards them, and their self-efficacy in supporting them in the workplace (Scott, Falkmer, Falkmer, & Girdler, 2018)
- This intervention will target corporations that are currently employing at least 1 worker with ASD or plan to hire individuals with ASD
- Organisational recruitment for this program via:
- Job matching services
- Job coaching services (e.g. Job Coach Network Malaysia)
- Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) associated with intellectual disability
- Social media advertising
- Autism community forums
- National conferences
- NOTE: This recruitment process relies on employees disclosing to their employers that they have ASD or other LD. However, many working adults with ASD are often hesitant to do so as they fear losing their jobs.
- The intervention outline is as below:
Note: The exact instructions of each module is not known and can only be found by having exclusive access to the IEST program (by contacting Curtin Autism Research Group from Curtin University)
- Employers should use the aspects of the IEST most relevant to the needs of their employees with autism and their work environment
Evidence (Scott, Falkmer, & Girdler, 2018)
- The intervention significantly improved self-efficacy, attitudes, and knowledge of 43 employers from various sectors over a 12-week trial period.
- The greatest change was in employer's self-efficacy in supporting employees with autism in the workplace, compared to control group.
Problems
- Many organisations are reluctant to hire individuals with learning disability (LD) (Harun, Che’Din, Rasdi, Farhan, & Shamsuddin, 2020).
- In fact, the 1% quota policy for public sectors has not been satisfied and still remains below quota since 2008, with only 500+ with LD serving the government as of 2015 (Lavasani, Wahat, & Ortega, 2015)
- There are still strong adherence to stereotypes of people with LD among organisations (Lavasani, Wahat, & Ortega, 2015)
- Interestingly, the Department of Social Welfare (SWD) has emphasised that adults with LD should only focus on doing low-skilled jobs
- Reflection of implicit prejudice against work potential of people with LD.
Problems
- Parents in Malaysia are generally more concerned over the well-being of daughters with LD while working outside compared to males (perhaps due to higher potential for sexual abuse/exploitation) (Harun, Che’Din, Rasdi, Farhan, & Shamsuddin, 2020).
- Concerns of workplace discrimination includes:
- Working undesirable jobs, setting unrealistic job expectations, and relational aggression from coworkers (Lavasani, Wahat, & Ortega, 2015).
- Bias against having disabled worker as a team member (Narayanan et al., 2019)
- Concern about miscommunication with employers and coworkers, which can cause misunderstanding and conflict (Narayanan et al., 2019)
- ‘Understanding Our Peers’ is an autism anti-stigma program originating from Australia
- This program was used to improve adolescent boy's knowledge, attitudes, and behavioural intentions toward peers with autism at school
- Here, we can slightly tweak the program to fit adults in the workplace context
- This program will target companies, especially those in public sectors, that have not hired workers with autism in the past
- Organisational recruitment (fast food chains, supermarket chains, etc.) via:
- Social media advertising
- Autism community forums
- National conferences
- The program outline is as below:
* After every session, they must reflect back to the previous session and write down three things they learnt from that session.
*Either 6 weekly sessions (1 hour each) or 12 weekly sessions (30 mins each). If 12 sessions, then split one session into 2 (e.g. session 1a and session 1 b)
Session 1
- Provide the employers and staff the program manual which will contain the program outline, activities, and additional resources. Introduce the facilitators and brainstorm the group rules.
- Start off with "The Sixth Sense" activity. First, discuss the five senses and inform them that a sixth sense, the social sense (perspective taking), also exist. Randomly ask any staff to describe what they could see from their seat and what the facilitator could and could not see from her seat to demonstrate perceptual perspective taking
- Second, hide a small object and ask a staff volunteer to leave the room, in which time the object will be moved. Ask the remaining people where the volunteer would look for the object when he returned to demonstrate cognitive perspective-taking
- Third, ask them to brainstorm feeling names and the cues one can use to determine how another is feeling to demonstrate affective perspective-taking
- Fourth, inform them that there are some people in the world who have difficulty taking the perspective of others, thus lacking this ‘social sense’.
- Homework: imagine having a child that fails to develop normally and reflect on how they would feel
Session 2
1. Review homework and address difficulties. Make a brainstorming web on the meaning of autism.
2. Have a staff volunteer read aloud a fact sheet and cartoon on autism. Have a brief workplace discussion about whether the information provided confirmed or disconfirmed their thoughts about autism and incorrect assumptions were clarified.
3. Refer to the Autism Society of America handout ‘Growing up together: Teens with autism’ (ASA 2004) (adapt it to fit adults in the workplace).
4. Watch the ‘Asperger Syndrome at Work’ and ‘Working with people with autism: the autistic perspective’ videos for a brief look on the perspective of adults with autism in the workplace.
5. Complete 5 questions related to the videos and have a brief discussion to review the answers to the questions.
6. Homework: reflect on whether the people with higher-functioning autism should inform their employer of their disorder, and provide reasons for why or why not.
Session 3
1. Review homework and address difficulties.
2. Explain to them that there is a common misconception that people with higher-functioning autism have control over their disorder, and thus choose to be rude, misbehave or act peculiarly.
3. Watch the video ‘Autism: National Autistic Society—Part 2 (socially awkward)’ which showed a man with higher-functioning autism acting in a socially inappropriate manner.
4. Use the knowledge gained from the program so far to consider why the man acted the way he did.
5. Complete a worksheet where they were asked to use their knowledge of autism to provide an alternative explanation for three different higher-functioning autistic persons’ inappropriate behaviour.
6. Have a brief discussion to review possible explanations.
7. Brainstorm the similarities and differences between neurotypical people and people with autism. At the conclusion of the activity, highlight that the quality of the similarities is greater than the differences.
8. Homework: watch the 5-min video ‘Autism: National Autistic Society Anti-bullying Campaign’ on the bullying of people with autism and comment on the thoughts and feelings it evoked in them.
Session 4
1. Review and discuss homework
2. Make a brainstorming web on how to effectively interact with people with autism. They can refer to this website for guidance.
3. Staff volunteers will read aloud excerpts from the book, ‘Autism Works : A Guide to Successful Employment across the Entire Spectrum’ (Feinstein, 2018) which provides ideas about how to appropriately engage with people with autism in the workplace.
4. Have a brief discussion about whether the suggestions from the book excerpts confirmed or disconfirmed their thoughts about how to interact with people with autism.
5. Pick 2 staff volunteers to be involved in an example role-play with the facilitator whereby a neurotypical coworker was required to defend his/her autistic coworker from workplace discriminaton.
6. Then, separate into groups of three and act out 3 provided workplace scenarios. The facilitator will observe one roleplay from each group and provide feedback.
7. Homework: Reflect on whether employees with autism should receive the same discipline/treatment at the workplace as their neurotypical coworkers, and provide reasons for why or why not.
Session 5
1. Review homework and address difficulties.
2. Brief talk from guest speakers in the session – a professional working in the field of autism and a working adult diagnosed with autism.
3. Ask them to consider how difficult it may be for someone with autism to speak in front of a large audience.
4. Emphasize the need for respect and the importance of confidentiality. Ask them to write down any questions for the speakers.
5. Following the presentations, give them opportunity to ask the speakers any relevant questions.
6. Homework: Discuss the notion that having higher-functioning autism can be a great strength (e.g. blunt comments may be interpreted as a sign of honesty) and reflect on whether this is a fair argument, noting any other autistic traits that could be interpreted as strengths.
Session 6
1. Review homework and address difficulties.
2. Brainstormed the key learning points of the program using the information provided and activities completed in the program manual.
3. Complete a mindfulness activity to encourage the staff to reflect on their own private experience of the program. Those who are comfortable can share their experience with their coworkers if they wished to.
4. Discuss why it is important to care about people with autism.
5. Have a brief class discussion which will emphasise that because everyone faces challenges in life, having understanding and being sensitive to the challenges of others are vital skills, especially if they are your coworkers.
6. Present them with certificates for completing the ‘Understanding Our Peers’ program.
Evidence
- The adolescents in the intervention condition had more knowledge about autism and more positive attitudes toward their peers with autism than the waitlisters.
- The observed changes in the knowledge and attitudes of individuals in the intervention condition were sustained at the follow-up assessment during the following school term
- Participants who were engaged more with the homework had more knowledge in the follow-up assessment than those who were less engaged.
3. Lack of workplace care/support
Problem
- There is a lack of occupational therapy for people with LD in the workplace, mainly because it requires a person-centered approach (Ineson, 2015)
- For example, it requires full attention paid to the individual and an intervention that is unique to the individual's needs and skills
- Unfortunately, it is not practical for modern workplaces which are often fast-paced and requires adaptive skills, which individuals with LD often lack
- Lack of long-term workplace support programs and individualised workplace training due to underfunding for adults with autism (Harmuth et al., 2018)
Solution for lack of workplace support and parental concern for child - Integrated Employment Success Tool (IEST)
- Integrated Employment Success Tool (IEST™) is an intervention originating from Australia and is a practical manual consisting of 8 modules (either paper based or PDF)
- Each module contains autism-specific information, checklists and goal setting activities, workplace modification strategies and additional work-related resources
- IEST can be used to improve employers’ and coworkers’ knowledge on hiring and engaging with workers with ASD, their attitudes towards them, and their self-efficacy in supporting them in the workplace (Scott, Falkmer, Falkmer, & Girdler, 2018)
- This intervention will target corporations that are currently employing at least 1 worker with ASD or plan to hire individuals with ASD
- Organisational recruitment for this program via:
- Job matching services
- Job coaching services (e.g. Job Coach Network Malaysia)
- Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) associated with intellectual disability
- Social media advertising
- Autism community forums
- National conferences
- NOTE: This recruitment process relies on employees disclosing to their employers that they have ASD or other LD. However, many working adults with ASD are often hesitant to do so as they fear losing their jobs.
- The intervention outline is as below:
Note: The exact instructions of each module is not known and can only be found by having exclusive access to the IEST program (by contacting Curtin Autism Research Group from Curtin University)
- Employers should use the aspects of the IEST most relevant to the needs of their employees with autism and their work environment
Evidence (Scott, Falkmer, & Girdler, 2018)
- The intervention significantly improved self-efficacy, attitudes, and knowledge of 43 employers from various sectors over a 12-week trial period.
- The greatest change was in employer's self-efficacy in supporting employees with autism in the workplace, compared to control group.
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