Getting Independent Living Skills Assessed By Age 14 through Age Appropriate Transition Assessment (AATA)

Make sure independent living skills are addressed as part of your teen’s Age Appropriate Transition Assessment (AATA) that starts at age 14. This will give you the skills and steps to work on as building blocks for the future.

AATAs should be occurring throughout all years in high school starting at age 14 to help determine needed services to achieve desired goals as an adult. This is typically done in school by the transition coordinator or other member of the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team if there is no transition coordinator. but can also happen in other therapeutic settings. This information from Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence (OCALI) provides information and a video about AATA.

Based on the AATA results, get a sense of your teen’s highest needs and skills to work on. Make a plan for how to start working on your teen’s most important challenges. For example it could be safety issues or setting a specific goal like their ability to handle getting and eating their school lunch appropriately.

Think through who on your team will be most helpful for these efforts - school, therapists, counselor or other professionals? Family and close friends can also help you if you give them information and steps to reinforce what you’re working on with your teen.

Set goals working with your school IEP team and therapists. The Milestones free autism Helpdesk is here to support you.

Transition assessments should be done every year through graduation from high school so you can see areas of mastery vs areas where there are always going to be areas of need.

The Milestones Independent Living Skills Checklist for Adults

The Milestones Autism Planning (MAP) Tool features the Adult Independent Living Skills Checklist to help you work on skills and assess your teen’s progress.

Each person’s strengths, challenges and sensory issues are different. These are goals to gradually work on, using the life skill tips and information for different ages and stages.

We have identified essential skill areas an adult needs in order to live independently or in the type of housing that is appropriate for their needs. In each category we provide examples of skills and knowledge to build toward. You will find more tips about working on these skills in the About the MAP page.

This is another tool that your IEP team can use when crafting goals and interventions.

Your Disability Agency

Make sure you or your teen maintain their connection with your local Department of Developmental Disabilities. (Depending on where you are located your Department of Developmental Disabilities may be run by your county or state.)

Check on the eligibility and re-eligibility procedures for your state’s Department of Developmental Disabilities’ services including the age at which services can first be accessed . For example, in the state of Ohio your child must be made re-eligible for Board of Developmental Disabilities services at 16 years old. You should get a letter in the mail, but if you don’t see it, contact your Board to request a reassessment.

If you haven’t explored applying to your local development disabilities agency, this is a good time to think about it. They offer resources that vary by state and can be very helpful.

Make sure your Board of Developmental Disabilities Support Administrator is aware of your desires for future housing so that they can be included in the team working on goals and resources to achieve them.

If you want your child to live in a group home or other supported living that will be funded or supported through the Board of Developmental Disabilities or a Medicaid waiver, you will be given the option of current openings rather than you choosing a provider.

Your Department of Developmental Disabilities may have resources for assistive technology that could help with your teen's independence. Keeping your Service Support Administrator (SSA) aware of specific communication, safety and other independent living skill needs can help them know what assistive technology resources to share with you. There are lending libraries that may help you find useful resources to borrow for free, such as this one from OCALI. You can try out these items before your teen/adult moves out to see what would work best for them. For example, you can see cooking ranges that don't get hot unless they touch metal.

A Vision for Thinking about Housing Long Term

Thinking about housing can feel overwhelming when you’re dealing with all the other teenage issues. It can feel like you need to be thinking at age 14 where they are going to live at 34. But think of it as a process that you can start now step by step so that you are preparing for their adulthood.

It starts by assessing, building skills and working with professionals. The more life skills they gradually develop the stronger place they will be as young adults. But you can’t do everything at once. People learn best a little at a time which works best for you since it’s too hard to teach and handle too many things at once. Have patience as it can take longer than you might think or like for them to develop these skills but that’s why it’s helpful to start early.

You’ll Know More at 16 Years Old

Once your teen is 16 years old and you have the results of their annual AATAs, you’ll know more about what their longer term strengths, challenges and needs are. This is a pivotal age that gives a better sense of whether your teen will be able to live independently or will likely always need supports so you can plan housing accordingly. You will also have clearer understanding of what your teen’s longer term strengths and challenges are which helps you make goals for lifelong learning and which skills make sense to prioritize.

For example, at 16 if we know a teen isn’t mastering money skills, while you can still work on it, it is most likely that money skills will be challenging for them as an adult. It may be better to work on other skills that show more potential and instead think about how you can set up long term financial support for your teen as they grow into adulthood. Maybe they will need someone to manage money for them or to monitor and help them with it.

Another example is being able to dress themselves and take care of daily hygiene like showering or toileting. Work with your local Board of Developmental Disabilities about a home care program so they start getting familiar with having someone in your home who is not you. Begin to explore home care providers to work with your child now. This is appropriate whether they may live at home long term or might longer term live in a group setting. Your loved one might be able to have a roommate or have in-home care.

At 16, if your teen hasn’t learned tasks in a category, then the school team is supposed to alter or re-address those goals. For example if your teen isn’t able to grasp basic concepts of money, they will need a Payee to handle their finances and the focus should be on helping your teen learn how to request things from the appropriate person, like their payee. Another example is, if they can’t judge who is at the door to know if it’s safe, installing a video monitoring system that allows remote video is an important safety solution.

This is called a modification of a skill, that is, changing the skill that we want them to learn based on a realistic assessment of their abilities. Your goal may be having your teen eventually be as independent as possible, but think about what is right for their needs and situation. If your teen is more impacted, focus first on basic daily life skills like bathing and eating that will allow them to live longer term in the least restrictive housing environment possible.

The Big Questions

Everything leads to the big stressful questions parents and families worry about for their children:

• Will my child be able to live independently as an adult?
• What kind of environment and supports will be right for them?
• Who is going to care for my adult child after I am gone?

We know these are scary questions. We are here for you. The Milestones free Helpdesk can provide you with tips and connect you with resources. We also offer in-depth family consultations that can be helpful for thinking through transitions and issues like planning for housing.

To learn more about housing, choices available and funding options, see this main housing article that outlines options.

It is important to start thinking about housing early to allow plenty of planning time. Depending on what kind of housing you end up considering, waiting lists can be very long for preferable housing programs.

Plan Ahead for Financial Arrangements

Financial and legal planning can feel overwhelming and complicated. The goal is to ensure that when you are no longer here that your loved one has the money, resources and a plan for them to be taken care of. Everyone’s situation is different. Seek out support and guidance for your Department of Development Disabilities or the Milestones free Helpdesk.

Make sure your loved one has someone trustworthy who has access to their government benefits, insurance, disability services and anything else that can be arranged for them.

Think about financial arrangements and plan ahead including whether a special needs trust account, specific benefits and/or an ABLE account are right for your loved one. You can use both a special needs trust and an ABLE account if you choose to. If you don’t have much money to contribute, consider what a small amount saved regularly can add up to over time.

If your loved one receives or might receive government benefits based on income limits, bear in mind that you cannot have more than $2,000 in assets or cash in your teen’s name (always check the current rules for yourself).

Open an ABLE account, which is a special saving account for people with disabilities that does not affect needs-based benefits such as Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). It may have different names in different states, for example in Ohio it's called a STABLE account. This OCALI workshop video gives information about STABLE accounts and special needs trusts.

You may also want to set up a Representative Payee which is someone who manages your money for you when you can’t so your payee can write checks for your loved one. Apply through the Social Security office nearest you. The payee can be a trusted adult or a professional at an agency that provides payee services.

You’ll find more information in this law and finance article in the MAP. The Milestones Legal Resources Tool Kit provides useful information as well.