Autism Grown Up is all about helping Autistic self-advocates, parents/caregivers, and teachers/professionals navigate the process of transitioning from childhood to adulthood and beyond. 

To that end, we have created the Life Course Library, a series of courses designed to teach the skills that go into adult and independent living across a wide range of ages and skill levels. The purpose of this post is to explain a little more about what each course has to offer.

The Life Course Library is divided into three courses:

• Course 1: Foundation to Transition Planning
• Course 2: Preparing for Life After High School
• Course 3: Navigating Adulthood

Each course is then divided into modules and lessons. These lessons, modules, and courses can be sequential, but do not have to be! If you are older, you may find some of the early courses a little too easy to be worthwhile. You may find some lessons align with the skills you are interested in learning, while others don’t really fit. Feel free to pick and choose the lessons that feel right for you! These courses are only useful if they serve your needs. You can always revisit other lessons if you decide they may be helpful later.

These courses may involve some input from students, but are not meant to quiz or test them. It is all about identifying the plans and goals that are right for you! Additionally, courses include an audio component so that students do not have to rely solely on visuals.

So let’s take a closer look!

Course 1 includes three modules, each with three lessons:

• Module 1: Life Skills

  • Learning Daily Living Tasks

  • Sensory Needs & Self-Regulation

  • Social Goals

• Module 2: Self-Advocacy

  • Building Self-Awareness

  • Expressing Personal Needs

  • Accessing Support

• Module 3: Milestones in Adolescence

  • Puberty

  • Peer Relationships

  • Transition to High School

We chose these three categories for modules because we believe they reflect some of the most important components of the transition to adulthood, and also to offer a better sense of what the lessons inside each module will be about.

These modules focus on a variety of topics, many of which are skill-dependent and some of which may be age-dependent. If you are working on the basics of life skills, for example, you may find Learning Daily Living Tasks to be a helpful lesson at any age. Alternatively, the lessons in Module 3 have topics that are mostly relevant to younger students because they are inherently age-dependent.

Self-advocates can decide for themselves which courses are most relevant. Parents, caregivers, and professionals can work together with students and clients to decide which lessons might be most worthwhile.

Course 2 offers the following modules, each with three lessons. The module names are the same as those in Course 1 for consistency, but all new lessons.

• Module 1: Life Skills

  • Building Routines for Daily Living Skills

  • Navigating Complex Social Situations

  • Accessing the Community

• Module 2: Self-Advocacy

  • Expanding Support Networks

  • Advocating Needs Across Settings

  • Transition Services

• Module 3: Milestones in Adolescence

  • Employment

  • Postsecondary Education

  • Community Living

Much like in Course 1, some of these lessons may be skill-dependent while others may be age-dependent. Younger students might have an interest in exploring employment and postsecondary education, but may also not feel it is very relevant yet. These courses are a great way to build on the foundational skills you have already learned or that you have worked on in Course 1!

Course 3 offers the following modules, each with three lessons:

• Module 1: Life Skills

  • Keeping Up with Daily Living Tasks

  • Personal Finance

  • Support Network

• Module 2: Self-Advocacy

  • Rights at Work

  • Rights in the Community

  • Healthcare

• Module 3: Milestones in Adulthood

  • Staying Connected

  • Relationships

  • Disability Services

Course 3 focuses on the many skills that adults need in the course of living an independent life, building on the foundational components of Course 1 and the more complex building blocks of Course 2. You may have noticed that there is a Support Network lesson in the Life Skills module, where in Course 2, it was in the self-advocacy module. That is because building one’s own support network becomes a more and more crucial skill the older we get!

These topics are the most complex of all, and also aim to cover some of the topics most important to young adults who might not be entirely sure where to start. So we hope you will start here!

If you’d like to share your thoughts or feedback, feel free to take the surveys you may periodically see on the website or let us know what you are thinking at hello@autismgrownup.com. These courses were made possible by a grant. If you are interested in sponsoring a new course, then we would love to hear from you too. In the meantime, happy learning!