Hello and welcome to your South Florida.

I'm Pam Giganti.

April is autism awareness month, and on today's program we're diving into the lives of young adults on the spectrum.

According to the CDC, autism affects roughly 1 in 26 children in the United States.

That's up from 1 in 44.

As these children approach adulthood, families are often faced with new challenges, from helping them to find sustainable employment to learning how to live life independently.

Building relationships can be a huge hurdle for many who struggle with social skills, making work, or creating friendships difficult.

That's where the social cog comes in.

This nonprofit creates safe spaces for adults 18 and over to help them create meaningful connections with their peers.

Earlier, I spoke with the Social Cogs co-founder, Doctor Nicholas Macaroni, and some of the group's members to learn how they are getting the support they need.

It's an environment that is uniquely set up to help them succeed, fighting social stigmas and creating friendships that are life changing.

Our members basically are folks that are struggling with social isolation.

These are folks that are looking for friendships, but in some way, for whatever reason, are struggling with how to make that happen and how to how to ultimately be happy with their social lives.

Psychologist Nicholas Macaroni co-founded The Social Cog in 2012 after noticing a gap in services for young adults on the autism spectrum.

A lot of our guys were starting to, uh, to age out of their services.

They were turning 18 and hitting what we call a services cliff.

We just didn't have the structure of services for them.

And so in 2012, I was approached by my co-founder, Natalie Broidy, and she basically came to me and said, listen, my son, Joshua Davis, he's sitting at home.

He's, uh, he's isolated.

He's trying so hard to make friends, and it's just not working out for him.

He doesn't need a social skills group.

He's already had those.

He doesn't need a meetup group.

He's got those.

What he needs is a program that combines the meetup group with support that goes on in between.

To help him overcome his obstacles.

We decided that we were going to make it because I have like five other guys on my, uh, on my caseload at the time that were in the exact same spot as Josh was.

That's when the Social Cog was born, a special organization to fill that critical need.

They devised a system called the three cog method.

This includes an accepting peer group, shared social and emotional experiences, and ongoing social coaching therapy.

But none of us are going to make friends with everybody, and we all have different interests and personality styles and everything like that.

And people in the autism community and, you know, other forms of neurodivergence, they're no different.

But I can guarantee every one of our members that at a minimum, at our outing, every single person that is there has strongly endorsed that.

They are looking to make friends.

So they're a safe person to at least approach and talk to.

That's a very important part of this.

The intrinsic motivation is, is key to having an accepting peer group that helps to alleviate some of the anxiety of of the types of things like like initiating a conversation and fear of rejection that our members have faced a lot of their lives.

From talking to doctor Nick, we're here because it's all about you.

Yeah.

When I was younger, I had a lot of social challenges, went through a lot of different social groups.

Talk about what the social Cog has done for you.

It's actually helped me a lot in terms of being able to be less nervous about things like this, for instance, and also being able to have better communication, especially at work.

I think the coaching piece is such a beautiful part of the program that has just helped the members grow so much.

Veronica Weston is a registered mental health counselor intern and has been a coach with the social Cog since 2021.

So as adults, young adults on the spectrum, what are some of the challenges that are fairly universal that they have to tackle?

I think it's a bit of anxiety before, like initiating a conversation.

Also, just knowing the skills to maintain conversations, finding those common interests.

So I think a lot of our work is that social skill based communication.

We're really breaking down the skills into a very digestible amount.

Like, let's start off with what even is a good friend.

How do I identify those things?

And then we really try to build these skills on each other, which is where the outings come in handy.

That's where our relationship with them is so important because we're asking.

Them to do these really uncomfortable things, we're able to help them self-reflect, able to have them really sit and digest.

Okay, these are my blind spots.

These are the things that I want to work on or my next goals, and also just continuing to encourage them to try something different.

I'm validating, like, I know that this is hard.

I know this isn't easy, but to really, you know, continue to push yourself because there is an outcome that can work in your favor.

As our members are advancing the program, we scale back the frequency of social coaching and the frequency of support, because ultimately we want them to be able to do these things when they're not in a in a meeting with their social coach.

We want them to be able to know the things to do that are going to help them to develop the friendships that they've already started to form, both within the social club and outside.

I wasn't really doing much.

I didn't have a lot of friends, and I didn't really have a social life really.

And I was really sad that I didn't have a social life.

So when you came here, that was your goal is to change all of.

That, to make friends and have a social life.

And so how is life now?

Would you say, oh.

My God, I have a lot of friends.

I keep up with people even they're not in the car anymore.

And it feels good to.

When I started at social college, Greer was one of my first members.

I've always described her, and I'm sure you've seen, like, she's just a ray of sunshine.

Yeah, like she's just so happy.

She is one of those people where she takes that role now and is really helping out other members who are maybe struggling a bit more because she's been in their shoes, like she's been where it's hard to connect and hard to to have people understand, like way she sees things and where she's coming from.

But now that gives her the opportunity to do that for other people.

And she's always pushing herself.

And, you know, it's the growth in Greer has been so beautiful to see.

We just talked to Josh.

Tell me a little bit about Josh.

We've been together for four years and we're meant to be together.

That's exciting.

So today's your anniversary?

Yeah, yeah.

When we talk about the impact that this has and the changes that we see with our members, I mean, look at our monthly outings.

I see it within a couple of months of somebody being in the program.

You just see them becoming more confident, more, um, able to come out of their shell and to be able to meet people and to talk and feel, uh, and feel accepted and feel like it's safe to be able to do that and that they that they're going to be able to do that successfully.

Um, that part is amazing.

So, Josh, what do you like about Greer?

She's very caring.

It makes me feel very special.

It's so sweet.

And, Greer, what do you like about it?

Everything is a missing puzzle piece of my life, and I'm really glad I have it to spend the rest of my life and live together with him in the future.

What do you think neurotypical people need to know most about people who are neurodivergent or on the spectrum?

I think it's often the assumptions that we make and the preconceptions that we have that set their limits right.

If I don't think, oh, well, they have autism or they're on the spectrum, they can't drive, they can't have a relationship.

So I never even bother talking to them about dating, or I never bothered teaching them how to drive.

But that's not the case.

Like Libya, Josh and Greer, who drive and are in relationship and cook dinner together and all these things.

But if I assume that they can't do these things, then I don't give them the same opportunity that I would give any other child.

You know?

And I think that starts at a young age, but it also continues through adulthood.

So I think it's just taking away those assumptions, taking away that bias and talking to them and seeing where they're at and trying to meet them at that space and support them from there.

You know, we look to our community to understand what we're doing and to and to help us to do this and to and to bring it to our members.

And, and the fundraisers is like, that's a big piece of our life.

But that that helps us to do that.

For the last four years, we've run an online fundraiser that we call Sunrise to Sunset, where we run a silent auction.

All of the proceeds help to keep the costs of the program down and to and to provide scholarships directly to our members who are most financially in need.

Um, and it's just been it that's been great to see the community, um, really come out and support us.

Last year, we had one of our members who was a phenomenally talented artist, and he asked if it would be okay for him to create a couple of pieces for us so that we could sell at auction to help, uh, help raise funds for, uh, for the program that.

He loves.

I do paint a lot of fictional monsters and, like, superheroes.

Uh, but I also do, like, still lives and animals and like anything in general.

What do you think has been the biggest benefit of the social cog for you?

I'm.

I literally like someone who's very compassionate and kind and, like, honest about something.

And when it comes to being like a social cog, I try to like be able to speak to someone who can actually get me.

There's someone who can I actually can relate to who can actually be like my body.

It has really helped me a lot, even when, um, when I see other people out there who also have the same disabilities as me.

The social park has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my career as a psychologist.

To be able to do this and to see our members grow into it and to watch their lives change.

And it's not just our members, it's family members who were so scared and were suffering along with their adult child or their adult sibling.

And to see, like the relief in the families that their family member is going to be okay.

So, you know, folks watching this, what should the rest of the world, people that we might call neurotypical, what should they know about this cohort of people who really are our neighbors, who are our children?

They want connection and love and friendship and shared experience just like anybody else.

And they're really cool.

Um, my members are awesome.

I love talking to them.

They're they have super interesting ideas.

You got to give them the chance.

I mean, they process things a little differently, but that doesn't mean that they don't want friends and that they're not capable of it and that they can't be somebody that can really enrich your life as well.

With an unemployment rate of roughly 85%, many adults with autism face significant barriers to finding gainful employment.

But a nonprofit group called happy is changing that.

By teaming up with Broward College, they are closing the gap by helping young adults on the spectrum get the education and training they need to pursue a career and live more independently.

This is our avionics hangar.

It's part of our aviation maintenance program.

Uh, avionics is aviation electronics and avionics technicians repair and install communications and navigation systems in aircraft.

Here at Broward College, we train students to repair all sorts of different navigation radios, communication radios and other electronic systems in the aircraft.

And so there's a great demand in the field for avionics technicians.

And we provide that training here at Broward College.

All of the training programs and aviation that we offer here at Broward College lead to careers that are high wage and high skill.

Our avionics program and our aviation maintenance program, um, graduates will typically start out in the $3,035 per hour range, but with wages going up, we've seen that increase quite a bit.

And then we have other programs such as our air traffic control program, named by Forbes as one of the best paying careers for students with an associate's degree.

And our pilot program.

Pilots are very well compensated, and even today, pilots that are starting their first airline job are making upwards of $100,000 per year, and it's certainly only goes up from there.

I was introduced to Larry Rothman with happy, um, about six years ago, and their mission is to help adults with autism find employment.

And Larry was very interested in the programs that we had here in our aviation Institute, and we brainstormed which programs might be suitable for autistic adults.

And we came up with the partnership program specific for our avionics program.

And that's where we've had a couple of really nice success stories.

Happy is a non-profit organization founded in 2016, in Western, and is solely focused on finding meaningful and sustainable employment for people on the autism spectrum.

Why is that important?

Well, the unemployment underemployment rate for people on the autism spectrum is purported to be 80 to 90%.

And what becomes very difficult for us to comprehend is we're dealing with a workforce crisis.

In the United States, there are 5 or 6 million autistic people who have the skill sets, have the ability, and certainly have the desire to work and have over and over again demonstrated that in the right jobs, they can not just do as well, but do far better.

When we started this partnership program with happy, we very early on in the conversation, wanted to think through how to accommodate autistic adults in the program and be sensitive to their specific needs.

Students are still held to the same high standards as neurotypical students, so there's no changes or watering down of the curriculum.

What changed was our approach to serving the students.

Perhaps they need additional time.

Perhaps they need assistance with note taking.

Perhaps they need assistance with study skills.

But at the end of the day, they're still learning the material.

They're still being assessed in the same way as neurotypical students would, and they're still learning the skills necessary to get employment out in the field.

I first met Zac when he was at the graduation ceremony from his Associate of Arts degree.

He was already a student here at Broward College, and so we were really happy to have him as the first student formally as part of this partnership.

A little bit of a poor timing because Covid hit right as he was starting the program.

And so that added an additional layer of challenge for all of us, of course, because avionics program, you really need to do a lot of hands on learning.

And so we had to struggle through that, especially for those first few months until we could develop a plan to come back in person.

Well, not only was it a new opportunity to learn something, but it was also supposedly a good paying job, and I just wanted to have a stable job that didn't pay minimum wage and that I could be able to go to on my own.

A little bit.

Older aircraft too.

But interesting though I didn't exactly realize the 16 was like 50 years old.

I thought it was newer, to be honest.

Yeah, we're very proud of Zach Hopkins.

He really represents that, which we hope everybody will be.

He went on to find a job at Summit Aerospace.

He started his in the avionics area.

He did such a good job that now summit has employed several additional people on the spectrum and other jobs that they have.

And so if we can keep replicating this, we will have enormous success.

And we're really, really happy for Zach's personal success.

Officially, I'm under the designation of a CSD IDG tester, but I would put it down under stress testing airplane engine generators.

My favorite thing about working with all this is that I'm able to do something I'm trained at, and I get paid while doing so, and it also helps me because the money I get it helps make me financially independent.

There are organizations, after organizations who talk about productivity gains, sometimes as much as over 100%.

In other words, they're great employees.

Not only that, their loyalty is second to none.

Average retention rates across the industries and businesses that employ people on the spectrum are over 90%, and it has a tremendous impact for the organization itself that employs them.

If we look at the three counties South Florida area, we have calculated that hiring 5% of the existing autistic population results in a $650 million a year benefit to the economy of the three counties.

And so it isn't just a good thing to do.

It is a very good business thing to do.

It is a great thing to do for the community and the economy of the community.

My goal is to eventually be able to live out on my own, and to be able to do so without a lot of assistance from my parents.

I want to be able to prove that I can live by myself without a crutch.

You slowly start to notice a change in the student's demeanor, just because they are learning skills that they know are directly applicable to employment.

And so I think that it shows them a way forward, potentially.

It gives them a little bit of hope that they can achieve their goals or perhaps achieve new goals that they hadn't even thought of in the past.

So it's great to see that.

And we're really proud to be part of that partnership with happy.

Palm Beach County mom Candy spits knows all too well the difficulties in navigating autism resources.

Having spent the last 15 years searching for the right therapies for her twin boys, we recently sat down with Candy to hear her advice for parents on how to get the services they need.

So I am a mom of twin boys, Brendan and Jayden, who are now almost 17 years old.

They're identical twins, but they're the rarest form of an identical twin.

It's called a mirror image twin.

So for the first about three months that I was pregnant, I was pregnant with one perfect little child.

And then around nine, almost 12 weeks into the pregnancy, um, they split into two.

And so for the first about nine months, we hit every milestone early.

They were walking, talking, eating, playing, eye contact, you name it.

They were huge child and TV movie stars.

So you were able to see their interaction playing language.

Come on.

Everything was typically developing.

Um, right at 17.5 months is when they started to regress.

Over a two week time period.

Every single day they lost a skill, so they stopped walking.

They stopped talking.

They started pulling out like the Gerber baby food, the stage three baby food.

They started pulling the chunks out of their mouth.

They wouldn't eat anything with chunks, and I had no idea what sensory issues were.

So at the time, I kept arguing with everyone like they're almost two.

They were in the developmentally advanced at that age, so they're probably hitting the terrible twos.

They don't want the food.

They don't want to act.

They don't want to do this.

Who cares?

Like let them just be children.

What I didn't realize was, at the end of that two and a half weeks, that they had basically lost every skill that they had.

They were rocking, they couldn't hold themselves up.

There was no eye contact.

It was this blank stare.

And I kind of didn't know where to go.

This was 14 years ago, almost 15 years ago.

Autism was not a common word that people discussed.

A lot of families.

There's just delays from the very beginning and you don't realize what's going on.

For me, it was so sudden that I was able to say, something's wrong, let's do what we can.

Um, but we lived in New York, and the official age of diagnosis at the time was two years old.

So the best that they could do was put us into early intervention, which at least got us speech, speech therapy, some behavioral therapy and some occupational therapy to get started.

But that was the game changer for us.

My life became so focused on Brendon and Jayden and making sure that they were the best they could be.

I didn't have time for anyone else.

That was my whole focus and over the next I would say about 3 or 4 years.

It took a toll on our marriage.

One parent always feels that need to plan the rest of their lives.

I mean, this is not up to 18.

This is the rest of my life.

So one parent really has to do that struggle.

But the hard part in that is that that's one income for us.

It was me re-entering the workforce.

How do you go back to work almost a decade later?

Um, losing that significant amount of time?

Who's going to take care of the kids?

My kids go to bed at 130 in the morning.

I, at most get three hours of sleep a night.

I juggle three jobs to be able to provide for my kids to live here in South Florida.

And that's living in, as you can see here, a small little two bedroom apartment, you know, in Delray, and you can't qualify for any kind of government services because we make too much money, but we barely make enough money to live.

They also need extensive therapy, as most therapies that are not covered by insurance.

They need summer camps.

They need caregivers.

Everything costs double once you put the word special needs onto it.

So we're all internally trying to deal with those struggles of how do I work?

How do I provide for my kids?

How do I do this?

How do I just live?

You can put on the smiles all day long on social media, and you can put out this, this face to the world, that life is great, but behind the scenes, somebody is trying to figure out how to navigate this system.

And for me, it was kind of it's been a blessing in disguise.

But learning that we have this incredible village here, and especially in Palm Beach County, but through, you know, through the Treasure Coast, through Broward, through Miami, we have incredible village, special needs families really kind of come together for each other.

Um, for me, it was coming, finding a career that was supportive of me as a mom and as a career woman.

Um, I'm with two and one the crisis line here in Palm Beach County, and I was so blessed to find an organization who understood the need for me to be able to be a full time caregiving mom.

Knowing that you have people you can turn to, you have people who will step in to help watch your kids.

There's resources available to guide you when you don't know where to turn to has truly been a blessing in our lives.

Most people know two elevens across the United States for crisis, for suicide and those kind of things here in South Florida, whether it be Palm Beach, the Treasure Coast, Broward and down to Miami, there's a special needs help line so you can reach out to two on one at any point in time and get a referral to the special needs helpline.

Say you're looking for a special needs dentist.

You're looking for financial resources or a camp for your children.

There's a person who can kind of navigate that maze for you and get you connected to the services.

I think the biggest concern, as any special needs parent, is what happens when I'm gone.

You know, my children are almost 17 years old.

They are brilliant.

They also have no self-help skills.

No life skills.

There's no stranger dangers.

There's no sensitivities to danger.

They will walk off with anyone they don't recognize.

You know, a car speeding at them is going to hurt them.

So my hope is that when that time comes, you know, I will have been able to afford a home that is theirs for them to inherit, that they have some self-help skills that they can provide for themselves with the help of a care giver, surface and not have to go into a residential, um, type facility.

I wish that when my kids were newly diagnosed, the first thing I wish I was that somebody would have told me that it's going to get better.

It's going to be okay.

We all have this vision of these perfect, this perfect pregnancy, the perfect life, the perfect children and all of these things that when it's pulled out from under you, you're your world kind of collapses.

You don't see that there's any way to make progress.

You can't see the hope you get into this bubble when you're newly diagnosed of like this fight or flight syndrome of it's never going to change.

This is going to be the rest of my life.

And that's not the case whatsoever.

We learn to adapt.

We learn to lean on people.

We learn to accept help.

But I'm glad that for myself, I pushed my kids as hard as I did when they were young.

Now, at 17 or almost 17, what I'm seeing is that my kids, every single day of the week, we are at a theme park.

We're at a concert, we're at a museum.

They're in situations that typical children can't handle.

Going to do.

I do adaptive things.

Do I bring headphones?

Of course.

Do I have special candies or snacks?

Do I have those things?

Do we talk through everything first?

But they're able to better handle things now because I did the hard work when they were younger.

Be hopeful for the future.

Our.

I've watched so many positive changes over the years.

I mean, we've gone through so many hard times and so many beautiful times that I never thought that I was going to have these experiences.

Don't let a quote unquote disability limit yourself, and don't let that limit your children because they have so much potential.

There is so many changes in this world, but you can make that happen.

For more on these and other autism resources, search for our YouTube playlist.

All about Autism.

I'm Pam Giganti.

Thanks for watching.