Fascinations, Areas of Expertise, and Strengths

I was thinking about Paula Kluth’s book, Just Give Him the Whale…, while I was driving today. Paula’s premise is that educators can and should use the fascinations, areas of expertise, and strengths that so many students with autism have to teach them a wide range of academic skills in inclusive schools. We also know that finding the fascinations, areas of expertise, and strengths of teenagers and young adults with autism, and using these as a springboard for future employment, has had huge success and brings such exciting possibilities to think out of the box when it comes to finding “goodness of fit” between a job and a potential employee. With appropriate “school-days to pay days” transition services, people with autism can have the opportunity to demonstrate their fascinations, areas of expertise, and strengths in a variety of settings so they can self-determine how they want to apply their gifts…both in the sense of having a personally satisfying career and really contributing to our nation’s workforce! But it remains up to us in transition services to be creative and to figure out how to make this happen. As Confucius said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Shouldn’t this be the goal for all of us?