Temple Grandin, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Animal Science, Colorado State University
Speaker’s Page
Keynote: Learning Work Skills in High School is Really Important
It is really important for a person with autism to learn work skills before they graduate from high school. They will have a much easier transition from high school to the workforce if they have held summer jobs. Work skills are not the same as academic skills. The individual will have to be on time and be neat and clean. Jobs that may be difficult for people on the spectrum would be multi-tasking at a busy fast food takeout window or remembering long strings of verbal instructions. A written “pilot’s checklist” of the steps required for a specific task is recommended. Working memory is poor but autistic people excel at tasks that require long-term memory and attention to detail.