Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1996. / Title from title page screen, viewed May 30, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Lanny Morreau, Toni McCarty (co-chairs), Kenneth Strand, James Thompson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-139) and abstract. Also available in print.

This thesis investigates the transition of young people with autism moving from a small, protected and personalised special school environment to a large, busy mainstream college of further education in England. Whilst potentially unsettling for any young person, this transition can be particularly challenging for young people with autism given a desire for predictability and difficulty in adapting to change. This longitudinal research focused on the experience of transition from the point of view of the young people and their parents, and it contributes to the somewhat limited research on post-16 transitions for young people with autism and learning difficulties. Six young people were at the heart of my research but their parents, teachers, lecturers and careers advisers were also interviewed. A key aim of the research was to develop methods to engage and support the young people in an interview process, without influencing their responses too much or restricting their contributions. With this in mind, ‘interrupted interviews' were developed that involved both the use of collage and card sort applications on a tablet, and walking interviews around the college environment. These methods helped to personalise the interview process, to hear the individual student voices and to facilitate communication about the concerns and experiences of the participants. The research findings demonstrate that young people with autism have aspirations, interests and concerns as they progress towards adulthood; that they both seek and enjoy social interaction and that young people and parents need support during and after transition. The tensions between independence and vulnerability are explored as well as the notion of interdependence. While some of the young people in this research made reasonably smooth transitions to college, there were difficulties and challenges, and these lay almost entirely within the area of social interaction. In order for young people with autism and learning difficulties to progress both academically and socially, there needs to be a greater understanding of autism within the whole college community and proper attention given to personalising the transition process to ensure that these young learners can realise their capabilities.

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Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Communication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2000.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2009. / Title from title screen (viewed Sept. 15, 2009) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Discipline of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine. Includes bibliography. Also available in print form.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Herbert J. Rieth. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1977. / Title from title page screen, viewed Dec. 22, 2004. Dissertation Committee: Elwood Egelston (chair), Samuel Price, Paul Dohrman, David Eaton, Clayton Thomas, Robert Cannell. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-101) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (PhD(Opvoedkundige Sielkunde))--Universiteit van Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Research has shown that youth with disabilities do not make as successful of a transition to adulthood as their peers without disabilities (Wells, Sandefur & Hogan, 2003; Timmons, Whitney-Thomas, McIntyre, Butterworth & Allen, 2004; Friedman, DeLucia, Holmbeck, Jandasek & Zebracki, 2009). However, a thorough literature review demonstrated promise related to evidence-based interventions seeking to increase successful transition to adulthood with this population to lessen this discrepancy between the two groups (Shogren, Wehmeyer, Palmer, Rifenbark & Little, 2015; Gharebeghy, Rassafiani & Cameron, 2015). The aim of this doctoral project was to explore the nature of this problem to better understand what has contributed to its development and to develop a solution to the problem through Becoming Responsible: Transitioning to Adulthood. The program is a web-based resource for parents raising youth with disabilities on how to transfer responsibility for daily life tasks from parent to child. The program is a synthesis of the Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) and the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction (SDLMI), which were shown to be effective with a wide variety of populations (Polatajko & Mandich, 2004; Wehmeyer, 2007). Additional information is included related to program evaluation, funding needs and dissemination plans.