This assessment tool and prescriptive guide, which is under development, will address the needs of an individual youth/young adult with autism in the following five general areas:
             

1. Academics- These clients often have academic skills to build upon even though they need additional life skill training.  These skills may not be apparent without specialized assessment.
2. Life Skills - Current life skill inventories for the general disabled population are ofen not appropriate for the unique needs of individuals with autism (e.g. specific training in reading facial and body language cues).
3. Interests - Individuals with autism often fill their time with repetitive, isolating behaviors and have an extremely narrow repertoire of interests. This area of assessment is designed to encourage innovative thinking about potentially productive interests and leisure activities.
4. Vocational Opportunities - Individuals with autism often have social difficulties and sensory sensitivities that preclude them from working well in traditional vocational rehab settings.
5. Experiences -Many people with autism lead extremely isolated lives and have not had normal exposure to everyday experiences. HOPE Alive will help families and educators become conscious of intentionally working through a wide variety of experiences to fill in gaps

Hope Alive will help identify both gaps in skills and areas of strengths for individuals with autism, empowering families and educators to develop meaningful educational and employment opportunities.