Objective Ed, Inc.

Summer Job Story for Transition Age Youth Who Have Autism Spectrum Disorder and Are Considered High Functioning. - the Goal of This Phase I Sbir Project Is (1) to Determine the Feasibility of Using an Animated Spoken Interactive Fiction (AIF) Story to Help Young (14-16 Years) High School High Functioning Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder (hf-asd) Practice Pre-employment Transition Skills (pre-ets) to Obtain a Summer Job, and (2) to Provide Information to Their Teacher to Deliver More Targeted Instruction Thereby Using Instructional Time More Efficiently. Our Objectives Include: (1) Define the Requirements for a System That Enables an Hf-asd Student to Practice Pre-ets Skills, (2) Develop a Prototype Computer-based Aif Story, (3) Build a Prototype Web Service to Capture the Student’s Progress and Display It as Skill Charts in a Browser for the Teacher, and (4) Assess Acceptability and Usefulness the System to Improve Pre-ets Skills With Actual Hf-asd Students Who Represent a Cross-section of the Underserved Population. Aif Is a Computer-based “choose-your-own-adventure” Story, Where the Student Is Presented With Hundreds of “decision Points”, and the Story Plot Proceeds Based on the Student’s Choice, So They Can Experience the Outcome of Their Decisions in a Safe, Non-judgmental, Virtual Environment. the Intended Outcome of This Phase I Project Is That the Hf-asd Student Will Find This Intervention Acceptable and Useful, and We Will Measure This Outcome Through Administering Surveys to the Student and Their Teacher. the Expected Product Is a System That Students Use Under Teacher Guidance, to Help the Student Obtain and Maintain Summer Employment by Mastering Many Pre-ets Skills.