Background In 2015, a father took his 14-year-old son who is on the autism spectrum on a six-month journey aimed to develop his son’s social-communication and independent living skills. The duo travelled across 10 countries, meeting people and practising these skills. This study examined their goals, motivations for, and outcomes of the journey. Method We used intrinsic case study methodology with mixed methods, including interviews with parents and professionals; analyses of filmed interactions between the son, his father and strangers during the journey; and descriptive analysis of parent-reported changes in their son’s participation at home, school and in the community using the Participation and Environment Measure – Children and Youth. Results Qualitative analysis of the interviews with parents and professionals revealed a set of insightful goals and motivations, focusing on creating an optimal environment for the son’s development. Parents reported increases in their son’s social-communication and independent living skills, but also unexpected changes in his perspective and self-belief. The former findings were consistent with those arising from video analysis, whereby social-pragmatic skills critical to good conversations (staying on topic, body position, eye contact) all increased over the course of the journey, while abrupt topic changes and conversational prompts reduced. Participation and inclusion across home, school and community settings all increased over the same period. Conclusion While this study makes no claims regarding causation, the findings indicate that the journey was associated with positive changes for the son and his parents, leading to greater expectations for, and progress towards, independence following the journey. Implications of the findings for supporting young people on the autism spectrum in regular community settings are discussed.

中文翻译：

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自闭症谱系障碍的非常规途径，以提高青少年的社交能力和独立性

背景知识2015年，一位父亲带着自闭症患者的14岁儿子参加了为期六个月的旅程，目的是发展儿子的社交能力和独立生活能力。两人在10个国家/地区旅行，结识了人们并练习了这些技能。这项研究检查了他们的目标，动机和旅程结果。方法我们将内在案例研究方法与混合方法结合使用，包括与父母和专业人员的访谈。分析旅途中儿子，父亲和陌生人之间的互动电影；并使用“参与和环境措施-儿童和青年”对父母报告的儿子在家庭，学校和社区中参与程度的变化进行了描述性分析。结果对与父母和专业人员进行的访谈进行的定性分析揭示了一系列有见地的目标和动机，重点是为儿子的成长创造最佳环境。父母报告说，他们儿子的社交能力和独立生活能力得到提高，但儿子的看法和自我信念也发生了意想不到的变化。以前的发现与视频分析得出的结论一致，在整个旅程中，对良好对话至关重要的社交实用技巧（保持话题，身体位置，眼神交流）在旅途中都得到了提高，而话题的突然变化和对话提示却减少了。在同一时期，家庭，学校和社区环境中的参与和包容都增加了。结论虽然这项研究没有因果关系的主张，研究结果表明，旅程与儿子及其父母的积极改变相关，从而导致人们对旅程后的独立性抱有更大的期望和进步。讨论了研究结果对在常规社区环境中支持自闭症谱系年轻人的影响。