Autism Job Story: Laundry job is working out for low-functioning teen…
“My son who is low-functioning, nonverbal and has behavior problems has been doing laundry for a local physical therapy office for about a year now. The PT office has pillowcases, sheets and towels — all white and all rectangular to wash. My son and his job coach pick up and deliver the laundry to the PT office twice a day. They do the laundry either at our house or at school (it’s part of his school program). Pay is minimum wage. We track the # of hours in an average week and then set up an annual contract with the PT office. We provide laundry detergent and baskets. The school provides transportation, job coach, utilities, washer & dryer when he’s there. We provide them when he is off school.
He also does our home laundry for us. The trick is to keep the home laundry completely separate from the PT office laundry. Never mix the loads and clearly keep the dirty laundry separated from the clean!”
Any new experiences?
Actually, yes. My son’s annual contract was up for renewal and almost was not renewed. Turns out that the employer felt he was not able to handle the work himself because the workload had increased and she discovered that he was getting help from his job coaches. This is a difficult one to explain – supported employment means the indivdual will get the help needed. The goal is to make progress and become as independent as possibile. The school explained all this and the contract was renewed, so hopefully, we’re okay for another year.
Lesson to be learned – always be prepared that the individual with autism might lose a job or maybe even choose not to continue a job. You never know what may change.