Asperger syndrome is a form of autism, a lifelong condition that is reflected in the individual's understanding of the world, the processing of information and the establishment of relationships with other people. In people with Asperger syndrome, we often see problems that are associated with executive function. These also appear later in life, at the time of adulthood. Executive functions play an important role in the everyday life of each person, they are important both in education and at the workplace. For an individual, employment does not only mean financial independence, but much more. Working, among other things, enables integration into wider environment, meeting other people and expanding social circle. According to many studies, employed people are happier, the social circle is larger, and in general they have fewer problems that are consequently related to unemployment. And since people with Asperger syndrome are faced with many demands and challenges at the workplace, it is important that they are successful in that. The success factors at the workplace include also the development of executive functions.
The existent master's thesis presents a designed model of support at the workplace, the implementation of which was carried out with an adult diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. In the model of support, we focused on two executive functions - organization and planning. First, we determined how much the organizational and planning skills were developed in the person; we developed a model of support and then implemented it with the person at the workplace. We have examined the extent to which the model of support has helped to improve organizational and planning skills in a person with Asperger syndrome at the workplace, and if it has contributed to greater productivity of a person at the workplace.
The introduction of the daily schedule led the person to start performing tasks that were daily accumulated. The recorded results show that the person was able to partially follow the daily schedule, which was the basis of the model of support. This means that the person often performed all the tasks assigned, but not within the timeframe set by the daily schedule. The support of the mentor in the form of one-hour supervision per day has proved successful. During this time, the mentor compiled a daily schedule with work assignments and norms and then followed the person in the beginning of the assignments according to the schedule. In the meantime, the person performed the work assignments attentively, yet later, in the absence of the mentor, the person performed the tasks for a longer period of time and paid attention also to irrelevant assignments. It follows that a person with Asperger syndrome needs support from the mentor more time per day than the latter research enabled.
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