UC Santa Barbara's Koegel Autism Center is currently recruiting for the Social Tools And Rules for Transitions (START) Program for young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The program is a 20 week no-cost multi-component social club to qualifying young adults, ages 18-25 with autism spectrum disorder, as part of a research study. This club combines a motivating environment to acquire social experience and targeted lessons to improve social skills and understanding. START is currently recruiting for both February and Summer sessions.
Funded by the Organization for Autism Research, young adults will participate in a program that features peer-facilitators, self-tracking of key skills, fun activities, social outings, and weekly interactive lessons. Young adults must be able to communicate using full sentence phrases and meet other criteria to qualify. They also must be able to travel to the UCSB campus at least once a week for a 2-hour session. Young adults will be compensated with a $20 gift card for participating in the project’s intake process, even if they do not finish or decide not to continue with the social club.
The Koegel Autism Research and Training Center, overseen by Drs. Robert and Lynn Koegel, is dedicated to improving the lives and prognoses of children and young adults with autism, as well as the lives of their families. It has been recognized by the National Academy of Sciences--and ranked among the country’s top 12 such facilities--for its innovative research and teaching methods in a variety of areas, including parent education, language development, and teacher education. It offers a state-of-the-art behavioral approach to autistic children. The Koegel Autism Center is part of The Gevirtz School at UC Santa Barbara.
All research participation is voluntary. For more information or to schedule an intake, please contact the UCSB Koegel Autism Center at autism@education.ucsb.edu or call us at 805.893.2049.