# Outcomes from a Driving and Community Mobility Intervention Designed for Novice Drivers with Autism from the Perspective of the Participants and Their Parents

## TL;DR

A 5-day occupational therapy bootcamp improved driving and community mobility skills for young adults with autism, as reported by participants and their parents.

## Contribution

Demonstrates the effectiveness of an interactive bootcamp in improving driving and mobility skills for autistic novice drivers.

## Key findings

- Participants reported significant improvements in driving and community mobility knowledge, skills, and abilities.
- Parents also noted improvements, though less pronounced than those reported by participants.
- The intervention led to significant reductions in anxiety and increases in confidence among participants.

## Abstract

To examine change in driving and community mobility outcomes for teens and young adults with autism as a result of participating in an occupational therapy intervention designed as a Bootcamp as perceived by the participants and their parents. Matched questionnaires were completed by novice drivers with autism as well as their parents prior to and immediately after the intervention. The intervention consisted of a 5-day (32 h) intervention using interactive driving simulators, role playing, and highly interactive learning experiences. Sixty-seven participants and their parents completed the pre and post surveys. Of these, 52 (80%) were male and 13 (20%) were female, with a mean age of 17.8 ± 3.03 years. Wilcoxon signed rank tests was used for the Likert scale questions and paired t test for ratio level data. Results demonstrated participants perceived significant improvement in knowledge, skills and abilities related to both driving and community mobility. There were also significant differences in perception from the parents’ perspective, but not as evident as the participants. Only a few significant changes were perceived in terms of executive functioning, which support accuracy of the results. Findings also showed significantly improvement in anxiety and confidence.As driving and community mobility is critical for young adults with autism to be successful in adult roles, intervention for improving knowledge, skills, and abilities in this complex daily task is essential. This study demonstrates statistically significant outcomes of a driving and community mobility occupational therapy intervention from the perspective of the participants and their parents.