Career Training and Personal Planning for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Practical Resource for Schools

 Vicki Lundine and Catherine Smith,
 Jessica Kingsley Publishers
 ISBN 1843104407,
 £29.99

 STAR RATING: 4/5

Dealing with the barriers to employment for young disabled people shows how important career planning is, writes Colette Eaton.

Lundine and Smith provide a work experience curriculum for students with autistic spectrum disorders and offer a range of topics for discussion and work, including self-awareness, decisionmaking and career awareness.

Each chapter provides the basis for a logical scheme of work with suggestions for activities and photocopiable resources. There is also guidance on supporting students to construct a portfolio of their work experience.

The activities are constructive and the clearly written resources could be used in a mainstream class. However, there is a lack of career planning materials that provide age-appropriate pictorial representations of the world of work. Unfortunately, these resources assume a high level of literacy and communication ability and would need significant adaptation for students with more complex needs.

Fundamentally, this is a good pack which covers more than just compiling a CV and writing a covering letter. However, its value as a “specialist” resource is limited.

Colette Eaton is a support manager

for students with learning disabilities,

Blackburn College