WORK PHASE I

The Challenge

Employment is essential for individuals with intellectual disabilities to achieve independence, financial security, and self-sufficiency — so that they can be active members in the community and achieve a higher quality of life. However, research-based support is lacking for students with autism spectrum disorder and other intellectual disabilities after high school, while existing support programs often face reduced budgets and increased service requests. Unfortunately, only 25% of individuals with intellectual disabilities are employed two years after high school.

Our Response

Using 3C Institute’s dynamic e-learning platform (DeLP), WORK (Web-based Occupational Resource Kit) is the first self-paced, adaptive job skills intervention designed specifically to meet the learning styles and social and emotional needs of students with intellectual disabilities. With Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding, this Phase I project supported initial development of a fully functioning software prototype of WORK, as well as feasibility testing with educators and usability testing with students with intellectual disabilities. Continued research and development in Phase II will demonstrate the effectiveness of this online, interactive learning and practice environment, providing an intuitive and feasible product for educators. WORK strengthens the home-school connection with integrated resources, reports, and easily shared activities, and supports implementation with online professional development tools.

Highlights

Dynamic, adaptive instruction

WORK’s software monitors each student’s performance to adjust the difficulty of interactive tasks and provide a scaffold for learning, and provides individualized reports for practice and self-assessment.

Video role plays and animated scenes

Live actors on video will demonstrate various ways for students to address likely challenges. Animated segments will support key ideas and engage students.

Engaging interactive segments

Students will be able to practice skills with a variety of interactive exercises, including game-based animated scenes, branching role plays, and visualization tools.

Report center

Educators will monitor assignment completion and generate student performance reports. Reports will include an interpretive section and personalized suggestions for additional intervention strategies.

DEB CHILDRESS, PHD

Chief of Research and Learning Content

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Childress obtained her PhD in psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to 3C Institute, she served as a research associate and a postdoctoral fellow in the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working on a longitudinal imaging study aimed at identifying the early markers of autism through behavioral and imaging methodologies. She has 19 years of autism research experience, during which she has examined the behavioral, personality, and cognitive characteristics of individuals with autism and their family members. Dr. Childress also has experience developing behavioral and parent report measurement tools, coordinating multi-site research studies, and collecting data from children and families. She has taught courses and seminars in general child development, autism, and cognitive development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Expertise

  • autism
  • early development
  • behavioral measurement
  • integrating behavioral and biological measurement

Education

  • Postdoctoral fellowship, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (Institutional NRSA-NICHD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • PhD, developmental psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • BS, psychology (minor in sociology), University of Iowa

Selected Publications

  • Elison, J. T., Wolff, J. J., Heimer, D. C., Paterson, S. J., Gu, H., Hazlett, H. C., Styner, M, Gerig, G., & Piven, J. (in press). Frontolimbic neural circuitry at 6 months predicts individual differences in joint attention at 9 months. Developmental Science.
  • Wassink, T. H., Vieland, V. J., Sheffield, V. C., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., Childress, D. & Piven, J. (2008). Posterior probability of linkage analysis of autism dataset identifies linkage to chromosome 16. Psychiatric Genetics,18(2),85-91.
  • Losh, M., Childress, D., Lam K. & Piven, J. (2008). Defining key features of the broad autism phenotype: A comparison across parents of multiple- and single-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 147B(4):424-33.
  • Wassink, T. H., Piven, J., Vieland, V. J., Jenkins, L., Frantz R., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., … Sheffield, V.C. (2005). Evaluation of the chromosome 2q37.3 gene CENTG2 as an autism susceptibility gene. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 136, 36-44.
  • Barrett, S., Beck, J., Bernier, R., Bisson, E., Braun, T., Casavant, T., Childress, D., … Vieland, V. (1999). An autosomal genomic screen for autism. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 88, 609-615. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8628(19991215)88:63.0.CO;2-L
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Landa, R., Santangelo, S., Jacobi, D. & Childress, D. (1997). Personality and language characteristics in parents from multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 74, 398-411.
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Jacobi, D., Childress, D. & Arndt, S. (1997). Broader autism phenotype: Evidence from a family history study of multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 185-190.