Better services for adults with autism should start in middle school, MUSC scholar says

This story excerpt is reposted with permission. The article was written by Tom Corwin and originally published on The Post and Courier on July 21, 2025.

Families know it as the services cliff.

A child with autism can receive special education and support in school, and even beyond up to a certain age. But around age 22 that coordination is gone and families must scramble for help.

Many adults with autism are unemployed or underemployed, thus it falls on the family to support them.

A new fellowship program at the Medical University of South Carolina is looking to improve services for those adults, which some estimate may total nearly 76,000 people on the autism spectrum in South Carolina.

One idea is to start with kids as early as middle school and get them thinking about what they would want to do for work or a career. The first fellowship recipient, Matthew Husband, also helped them get early exposure to what it is like to work in different environments, such as offices and restaurants.

The MUSC program began last year with an endowment from the Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation, which describes itself as the first to focus only on adults with autism since it began in 2002. The foundation had previously endowed programs at Yale, Brown, Rutgers and Arizona State universities, as well as at the University of Miami Center for Autism and Related Disabilities.

MUSC's fellowship is for those in the Post-Professional Occupational Therapy Doctorate program and seeks to improve direct care services for adults with autism.

Read the full article on Postandcourier.com.