About – Surviving and Thriving in the Real World

What is the STRW Intervention?

The Surviving and Thriving in the Real World (STRW) intervention is the first evidence-based intervention for autistic teens that targets building age appropriate daily living skills to facilitate a successful transition from high school to the adult world. The STRW intervention manual is also available to clinicians to purchase at Routledge and Amazon.

What skills and content are covered in the STRW intervention?

How are daily living skills targeted in the STRW intervention?

In the STRW intervention, teens and their caregivers set individualized goals (e.g., cleaning their room each week, doing their own laundry and putting it away, cooking a pizza for dinner, budgeting for their upcoming graduation party) that will be targeted over the 15-week intervention using a Daily Living Skills Contract.

A range of evidence strategies (e.g., learn-watch-practice-do, visual strategies, video modeling, technology) are introduced and then individualized based on which are most successful in helping the teens to meet their daily living skills goals.

The teen’s strengths, challenges, learning style, and level of commitment is incorporated into the creation and modification of daily living skills goals, expectations, and rewards.

The caregiver’s level of commitment, available time and energy, and parenting style are also taken into consideration to make it more likely that teens will learn, practice, and master daily living skills goals.

The STRW Leader works with the caregiver and teen in both the weekly caregiver group session and the weekly caregiver/teen dyad session. The STRW Leader will assist teens and their caregivers with developing goals that are obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying to increase the likelihood of achieving these goals and maintaining them in the future.

How do teens improve after completing the STRW intervention?

Recent efficacy studies on the STRW intervention have demonstrated statistically significant and clinically meaningful gains of 2-4 years in domestic, personal, and community DLS after completing the intervention. The STRW intervention may have a positive impact on reaching short-term goals while in high school and achieving successful outcomes in adulthood (e.g., attending college, keeping a full-time job, living on one’s own in an apartment).

Gus was a 16-year-old teen who completed the STRW intervention during the fall of 11^th grade. He had daily living skills that ranged from 5 to 9 years of age when he began STRW and really struggled doing things independently without help from his parents.

During STRW sessions, Gus and his mother worked towards his personal goals of (1) getting himself ready for school each morning independently, (2) making dinner for his family once per week, (3) doing his own laundry each week, (4) helping with grocery shopping, and (5) making a budget with the money he earned from a part-time job.

At the end of STRW, Gus gained over 6-years of daily living skills in just 4 months! He continued to build age-appropriate daily living skills prior to enrolling in a community college after he graduated from high school.

"STRW helped our family immensely! My son is becoming more independent as he works on his daily living skills goals!"

About the Developer, Amie Duncan, PhD

Amie Duncan, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist with training and expertise in working with autistic teens as they strive to make a successful transition from high school to the adult world of work, college, independent living, social connectedness, and community participation.

She is a Professor in the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati and is a faculty member in the Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). She received her doctoral degree from the University of Alabama and completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

She has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on several federally funded research studies (e.g., National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, Department of Defense Autism Research Program, and Department of Education) that seek to develop and evaluate interventions for autistic teens including in the areas of daily living skills and executive functioning.

Dr. Duncan is constantly striving to figure out how to help children and teens build age appropriate daily living skills, but to also make this doable for busy families. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband and 3 children.

Contact Amie

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