The Process Toward Social Independence of the Child as Experienced by Mothers of Children on the Autism Spectrum.

With the cooperation of a mother of a child with ASD who was enrolled in the middle and high school of a special needs school, this paper analyzes the communication notes for three years of the ASD child’s high school years and interviews the mother about the child’s middle and high school years and one year after graduation from the high school. Through this analysis, I investigated how the mother of a child with ASD experiences the process of her child’s social independence. The following findings were confirmed in each research. Analysis of communication notes: In the first year of high school, the mother of a child with ASD began to visit a workplace as the first stage of “experiences related to her child’s social independence” . In the second year of high school, she decided on the type of business that suited her child, and at the same time, she was making her child aware of the necessity of employment. In the third year, the mother experienced the stage of deciding on a postgraduation course of study and carrying out the necessary procedures. Interview survey:（ 1 ）The mother concretizes the image of employment through the acquisition of realistic information.（ 2 ）The mother obtains real information in informal parents networks that she built.（ 3 ）The mother attempts to slope the transition phase toward employment with less burden on the child.（ 4 ）The mother notices the child’s own growing awareness and consciousness as a worker, the child’s acquisition of self-selection skills, and the child’s budding vocational readiness, and feels a sense of growth.（ 5 ）The mother’s relationship with her child is based on observing the situation. She then tries to assure the child’s feelings. At times, she must trust her child and let him face the difficulties. Through the above analysis, it was confirmed that the mother of the ASD child in this case focused on having her child acquire employment readiness in small steps toward social independence from the beginning of high school, and at the same time, the mother herself took actions in small steps toward her child’s social independence. In addition, the analysis of the liaison book showed that the words “office” and “visit” had a strong co-occurrence throughout the three years of upper secondary school. As revealed in the interview survey, the mother emphasizes the importance of “information that can be seen with the eyes” and “letting the child have an awareness of working” in order for the child to become socially independent. The above co-occurrence was demonstrated because the above-mentioned behavior was matched with the behavior of “visiting the business office” .Thus, it was confirmed that “experiencing on-site” is important for both parents and children in the process of choosing a career path.departmental bulletin pape