Recess, for most children, is synonymous with freedom. A break from class that has nothing to do with learning and everything to do with play.

For children with autism, the playground can be an isolating experience. The spontaneous soccer games, roving packs of friends and virtual buffet of activities can be chaotic, frustrating and confusing. Recess is not a time to join, but to retreat.

Or is it?

A 91探花-led research team found that children with autism communicate with peers and participate in activities more often than people might presume. , a research assistant professor in the 91探花Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, saw the potential in studying how children with autism experience recess, and how that could lead to opportunities for development and inclusion.

Schools, legitimately, focus on supporting students in the classroom, Locke said, and many children with autism spend most, if not all, their day in a general education setting. However, recess tends to be viewed only as a necessary break for students and teachers.

鈥淔or children with autism, recess may be the hardest period of the day, where kids struggle the most. There鈥檚 a lot of stimuli and disorganization on the playground,鈥� said Locke, who specializes in interventions for children and adults with autism. 鈥淭he literature estimates that students with autism spend about one-third of their recess period alone, and that limits the opportunities to practice social skills, engage with their peers and develop friendships, which is what typically developing children do at recess.鈥�

Locke and her team visited elementary schools at recess. They observed 55 elementary-age students with autism, recording not just their activities but also how they behaved during those activities 鈥� their emotions, communication with classmates, the positives and negatives. Their published last fall in the journal .

The qualitative approach is what distinguished this study from other past research, Locke said. Studies have catalogued the recess activities of children with autism, but not their nuanced behaviors as they played, or how they relate to typically developing children on the playground.

鈥淲e know that kids with autism experience more isolation than typically developing kids, and when you look at their social networks, kids with autism often are on the periphery, not the core members of a peer group, and they experience more bullying and rejection than typically developing kids,鈥� Locke said. 鈥淕iven how social impairment affects their daily life at school, we were surprised and pleased to see that many of the activities they engaged in are the same as what typically developing kids do.鈥�

The team found that recess periods varied from 10-35 minutes. During an average recess period, children with autism played alone for about a quarter of the recess time, but also spent 30 percent of the time with peers. The remainder was spent in proximity to other children, but not interacting with them. Nearly half of the participants spent time talking to other children. Forty percent of children played with toys or natural items such as sticks and rocks; almost one-third played on the swings, the monkey bars, slides and other equipment; and about one-fourth joined in playground games like tag.

Communication was measured differently, based on how many times a child with autism initiated conversation with or responded to other children. Children in kindergarten through second grade initiated conversation an average of 8.3 times, while those in grades three through five initiated conversation an average of 6.7 times. In most cases, the children initiated conversation while engaged in a joint activity, such as playing with the same toys or during a game.

While not every conversation attempt was successful 鈥� a child with autism might not pick up on certain nonverbal cues, for example, or try to talk to someone from across the playground 鈥� the efforts show intent and motivation, Locke said.

And therein lie the opportunities to make recess more inclusive, she added.

The playground can be an environment that supports various interests and activities designed to improve motor, play and social skills, Locke said. Monkey bars and swings and toys lend themselves to partner activities, the playground to a scavenger hunt and the lunch table to conversation games. That also likely necessitates more guidance from adult recess monitors or teachers, Locke notes, but inclusion and empathy also can be cultivated as part of a classroom or school culture.

鈥淭he strategies we use with children with autism also work for most children,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e use visual strategies and direct language to reduce ambiguity and make things clearer for everyone. We want to make recess a welcoming, inclusive and safe space for all kids.鈥�

鈥淔or kids with autism, facilitated recess is a much safer space than joining an unsupervised basketball game. It鈥檚 less about winning and more about engaging, playing and having fun together.鈥�

Other authors on the study were Sean Gilmore, who conducted the research while a graduate student at the UW, and and , both currently of the UW. The research was funded by the Autism Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health and a FAR Fund Early Career Award.

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For more information, contact Locke at jjlocke@uw.edu.

The sky is grey, the breeze is chilly, and Matthew Skelly, decked out in a fleece vest and work boots, is pushing a contraption called a picker around the 91探花 driving range.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of golf balls polka-dot the field. And four mornings a week, before the range opens, 21-year-old Skelly is one of two people assigned to collect them with the picker, a device like a push mower that traps the balls in its wheel and rolls them into a bucket. The picker squeaks as Skelly rolls it over the grass and through the mud, and sometimes he has to retrieve by hand the balls that miss its grab. By mid-morning, when folks show up with their clubs, he’ll have to move on to yard work.

“There are a lot of balls, and sometimes I don’t get them all,” he said. “But I like being outside. I like moving around.”

Skelly’s job at the driving range is an internship, his third this academic year, and he’s liked something about each of them: the responsibility of maintenance work at Transportation Services back in the fall, and, during winter quarter, the office environment of the Speech and Hearing Clinic, where he honed his ability to organize. The program’s three-internship structure has given Skelly, who is on the autism spectrum, skills that can translate to other jobs as he begins looking for full-time work later this spring.

That’s the goal of , a national initiative that is piloting its autism-focused, school-to-work model at the 91探花this academic year. At 10 locations on campus over the course of the year, the 91探花has hosted young adults with autism from the community in unpaid, part-time internships. The program partners the 91探花with the state Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, Seattle Public Schools and , a local nonprofit that helps people with disabilities find jobs and gain life skills.

Here at the UW, seven young men and women, all ages 20 or 21, are in the final quarter of their internship experience. Having received special education services through Seattle Public Schools, they are entitled, through age 21, to receive post-high school supports such as this from the district. Now, as the interns look to the future, one or two may pursue community college in the fall. A few talk of living independently someday. All hope to land a paying job, doing something they feel comfortable with and enjoy.

“At the end of this, we want these students to be able to put on their resume that they had these different experiences and job skills,” said , a research assistant professor in the 91探花Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences and the campus liaison to Project SEARCH. “Project SEARCH is providing them with practical experience and on-the-job training. When they go to their paid job in the real world, they will be better prepared and ready to work.”

A job for money, and for pride

For someone on the autism spectrum, finding and keeping a job can be a challenge.

According to Drexel University’s 2015 , 58 percent of young adults on the spectrum 鈥� after high school, before their early 20s 鈥� have had a paying job outside the home.

Project SEARCH, which started in the mid-1990s at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to improve the job prospects of people with developmental disabilities, launched a pilot study of an autism-focused approach at three sites on the East Coast in 2016 and expanded to the 91探花in 2017.

Autism presents a unique set of circumstances, advocates say. People on the spectrum often demonstrate an interest in or knack for a particular topic or job type, but they may need practice in some of the soft skills so critical to today’s workplaces: multitasking, adapting to new practices, joining a team environment, and recognizing conversational cues and other social norms.

Universities can be tough sites to break into with a program like this, explained Project SEARCH’s Elizabeth Falk, because of their size, the requirements of various jobs and in some cases, the complications of contracts and vendors. The 91探花was chosen because of support from the university and its local partners, and because of its proximity to large technology companies such as that have developed autism hiring programs of their own, Falk said. As part of the pilot, Falk is studying employment outcomes: what skills the interns acquired, how the host sites and partner agencies provided support, and whether interns ultimately found a paying job.

Among people with autism, having a job produces both practical and less tangible results, said , director of 91探花Medicine’s .

“Individuals with employment make ongoing progress. Their autism symptoms lessen, and that appears to be related to the opportunity to socially engage and continue to learn,” said Stobbe, who was involved in bringing the Project SEARCH Autism Enhancement model to the 91探花main campus. “We all learn a lot on the job. For people with autism, it’s about interacting with people. Having a job almost becomes part of the treatment in the adult years.”

It’s helpful for other people in the workplace, too, Stobbe added, because they adapt. Fear and misunderstanding of differences erode. Rather than pushing people with autism to become something they’re not, how about meeting them halfway?

“We need to embrace and welcome their differences, because differences can be a part of their skills,” he said.

Seattle-based PROVAIL is the nonprofit agency charged with helping the Project SEARCH interns transition from high school to employment. The post-high school phase is critical to future success, said Michael Goodwill, the organization’s head of transition services. While special education students continue to receive support services from their school district, they can explore their job interests, thus increasing the odds of continued employment. Indeed, the National Autism Indicators Report shows that 90 percent of people with autism who worked during their teens went on to have a job in their 20s.

“Schools and support systems are recognizing the value of making these opportunities happen for youth before they exit school. Our data show that retention is better when those systems get involved before students leave,” Goodwill said. Students participating in Project SEARCH have a support team that helps make for a smoother transition between school and workplace.

“It’s bridging the gap between these big milestones in a person’s life,” Goodwill added.

The liaisons with PROVAIL and Seattle Public Schools try to match the Project SEARCH internship with the person, their interests and challenges. They lead the interns in a group meeting every morning to discuss the day’s itinerary and upcoming tasks, and again in the afternoons to debrief.

Serving the 91探花community

At the UW, interns start a new job each quarter to gain skills for and understanding of different work environments. Transportation Services assigned an intern to tackle maintenance at Central Plaza Garage; the Department of Communication needed someone to help check out camera equipment to students; and the Speech and Hearing Clinic needed an extra hand to inventory books for children, just to name a few.

, director of orchestral activities and conductor of the 91探花Symphony, had his own long-planned project: creating a database of high school orchestra directors in Washington and nearby states. There was a Project SEARCH intern for that, too.

When Rahbee first heard about Project SEARCH, he said, he wondered if his task would be appropriate. Then he talked to intern Alan Chen. “He showed he could do all of it,” Rahbee said.

And more. Chen, 20, managed the project mostly on his own and expanded it to six other western states. From there, he moved to other internships during winter and spring quarter 鈥� the first in the Department of Classics, the second in the Center for the Studies of Demography and Ecology. But he continued to work on a second database for Rahbee, this one of youth orchestras.

“The work he did makes it possible for me to reach more people,” Rahbee said. “The success of our聽orchestra program depends on the participation of non-music majors. The more high school music programs I can reach out to about our program, the more we will grow, and our orchestras will be stronger,” he said. “At the same time, finding things for these students to do so that they can feel good about their work is important.”

Before the Speech and Hearing Clinic’s first intern arrived last fall, staff had a wish list of possible job tasks, which they were able to tailor to the intern’s strengths, clinic manager said. In the winter, when Matthew Skelly came aboard, the assignment went a slightly different direction, thanks to 聽his data-entry skills. But coming up with plans was a fun challenge.

“The key is to be flexible with expectations and willing to think creatively,” Siebens said.

To Locke, the Speech and Hearing Sciences faculty member who serves as a liaison to Project SEARCH, the program helps improve diversity and inclusion on campus.

“When we think of diversity, the first thing that often comes to mind is race and ethnicity. But disability also is part of diversity,” she said. “Project SEARCH is an opportunity to highlight how valuable students with autism are in the workplace, which brings more value to the university as a whole. There are benefits for everyone involved when we have a really strong mission of inclusion.”

Back at the driving range, Skelly considered how the program has helped him toward his ultimate career goal: flight attendant. He works part-time as a barista at a West Seattle Starbucks and, thanks to the 91探花internships, he’s learned what other opportunities are out there. He said he’s also figured out how he works, and what he likes: moving, not sitting, and interacting with other people. Customer service, really 鈥� something those who’ve worked with him at all his internships say he’s especially good at.

It was nearing 10 a.m., so Skelly stepped inside and flipped the sign in the window to “open.” Time to get back to work.

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Project SEARCH is lining up internship sites at the 91探花for next school year. For more information, contact Locke at jjlocke@uw.edu or Cassondra Yi at PROVAIL, cassondray@provail.org.