Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is the fastest-growing developmental disorder in the United States, yet social workers are often ill-equipped to address the issues that the population faces due to a lack of training in education and practice. The following Banded Dissertation comprises three separate scholarly Products that together explore ASD and the transition into adulthood. The first Product is a conceptual paper that examines the division within the Autism community among autistic adults and non-autistic parents raising autistic children. This paper looks at how the divide within the Autism community affects the transition to adulthood for autistic youth. Product number two is a qualitative study that seeks to better understand correlates associated with attaining independence by examining childhood experiences that are common across adults on the Autism spectrum. The third Product is a peer-reviewed poster presentation entitled: Childhood Experiences and Independence among Adults on the Autism Spectrum presented at Minnesota’s Social Service Association (MSSA) conference on March 17, 2022. The poster included an overview of the preliminary findings of Product number two and its application to social work. Specifically, the poster examines ways that human services professionals could more easily understand and work with autistic individuals and their families.