Research

In determining which direction to go in for my research, I first checked out the library. There is next to nothing on high-functioning autistic (HFA) transitioning into adulthood. The books I found all have to deal with raising an autistic child. The one book I looked at focused on adult living situations such as group homes and institutionalized settings. This expressed to me that there is no hope for Eric to function on his own and I don't believe that to be true. I called the local elementary school and spoke with the special education secretary. I explained that I am doing a research paper of HFA and wanted to find out about resources and how the school prepares these children to function independently in society. She told me that the special education teacher was on vacation (school break). She took my number and told me that she would have the teacher contact me after break. I will follow up on this conversation and hopefully find some resources that may be available to Eric as he gets older. I also spoke with my daughter to get a clear picture of what suspicions she had that led her to seek a diagnosis of Eric and what the doctors told her his prospects might be as he got older. Lastly, I have found a number of articles on the internet talking about HFA and the prospects that await them as adults. Some of the articles talk about the types of jobs best suited for HFA and the kinds of situations they may encounter in the "real" world as adults. Most likely, most of my research will come from internet articles as they appear to have the most information on adults functioning with HFA.