autistic sankarlingam 26 has been on a paid job in a major ho tel chain in taramani for close to two years he was in charge of table setting and to help during peak hours he was really efficient he did have a few meltdowns when the decibel levels were too high during peak hours and so was the anxiety level of other staff but those were learning points says l v jayashree director the spastic society of tamil nadu where he was given vocational skills his coworkers and floor supervisor were sensitised and were told to give him simple and direct instructions when the supervisor questioned him once sankarlingam reacted in anger he was then taught a breathing technique to calm himself which they called the turtle every time the situation was tense hotel staff would tell him to do a turtle sankarlingam can count himself lucky as most autistic children who are mainstreamed tend to drop out by age 14 as they cannot cope with their peers and the workload say experts when autistic children grow up their parents get old too and arent as enthusiastic as they once were so it is important to intervene at an early age and impart skills that will help them in future says mythili chari founderdirector institute for remedial intervention service there are avenues for autistic individu als to be part of an everyday picture if their capacity is identified understood and developed parents have to look at a childs interest and train them in a profession that stays in the job market for at least the next ten years chari adds centres imparting employable skills to autistic people are coming up and several young autistic adults are being placed in hotels and computer industries those with an autism disorder can do well in jobs that are structured have a routine and involve little communication horticulture cooking housekeeping pet grooming electronics and computer operations are said to be their forte they have a good relationship with animals say professionals they are confident and comfortable with computers says surabhi verma director sparsh for children delhi they are perfectionists and follow in structions to the dot so they are efficient in housekeeping says akila vaidyanathan director amaze charitable trust the only vocational centre for autistic individuals in coimbatore bharath subramanian 21 their student has just received a job offer from sap labs india to work in the logistics department when resources arent available we have to create our own says akila who is also mother of an autistic teenager nishant 19 nishant dropped out of a regular school in 5th grade when he developed behaviour aberrationsnishanth isnt a high functioning kid like bharath he doesnt speak or write but he is skilled in cooking computers cycling and trekking special schools did not train him in what he was interested in akila says her fledging centre offers different sets of programs to suit different autistic adolescents primarily based on technology some are learning