Executive Function Intervention for High School Students With ASD

Flexible Futures is a novel and innovative cognitive-behavioral treatment that directly addresses executive function and self-regulation deficits in ASD. Flexible futures targets flexibility and planning through self-regulatory scripts that are consistently modeled and reinforced. Scripts compensate for the inner speech and organization/integration deficits in ASD, and are practiced repeatedly to achieve automaticity. Content focuses on key functions needed for college success, such as: intrinsic motivation, how to implement skills socially, self-advocacy skills application of flexibility and organization scripts and strategies in the service of a long-term goal, and management of time and priorities.

Flexible Futures will be compared to a social skills treatment as usual that capitalizes on current standard of care provided by local school districts.