Remember the first time you interviewed for a job? What did you wear? What did you say when greeting people? How early did you arrive, 10, 15, or even 30 minutes early? How did you know what to say versus what not to say during the interview? Were you nervous, scared, or even confident?
This is just one example of hundreds of social situations we learn about or are expected to somehow intuitively understand how to handle as we enter into adulthood. For persons with autism, we know the intuitive ability to understand is not truly intuitive. A person with autism and Asperger syndrome “will require learning the unwritten rules of social culture, basically by rote. One by one, she must add each to a database of information so she can try to say and do the appropriate things at the appropriate times” (Hawkins 2004, p. 69). Preparing for social situations we attempt during adulthood, such as an interview, requires exactly that – preparation.
Downloadable Tool: Assessment for Communicative Social Skills (411 downloads )