Description: Young adults with high-functioning autism often demonstrate significant strengths while continuing to experience challenges related to executive functioning, emotion regulation, social relationships, self-advocacy, and navigating the transition to adulthood. This presentation will review common areas of difficulty and provide practical, evidence-informed interventions and recommendations to support success across educational, vocational, social, and independent living settings.

Objectives:

By the end of this course participants will be able to:

• Identify common challenges experienced by young adults with high-functioning autism during the transition to adulthood.
• Describe practical strategies to support executive functioning, emotion regulation, self-advocacy, and social success.
• Apply evidence-informed recommendations to promote independence and quality of life in young adults with autism.

Featuring: Margaret Kocak, PsyD, a licensed clinical psychologist at Brook Lane Health Services specializing in psychological and neurodevelopmental assessment of children and adolescents. She earned her Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology from Immaculata University, an APA-accredited program, and completed advanced training across inpatient psychiatric hospitals, neuropsychology private practice, and outpatient behavioral health settings. Dr. Kocak has extensive experience conducting comprehensive psychological evaluations for autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, intellectual disability, and complex psychiatric presentations, and has received specialized training in gold-standard autism assessment, including the ADOS-2. In addition to her assessment work, she has provided evidence-based therapy to children, adolescents, and adults across diverse clinical settings. She provides consultation within multidisciplinary teams and emphasizes diagnostic accuracy, evidence-based assessment, and translating findings into meaningful, actionable recommendations for patients and families.

Course Format: Virtual – Course link and handouts will be provided to registrants prior to the course.

With gratitude, Brook Lane acknowledges that this program is funded in part by the William B. and Sylvia A. Hunsberger Fund.